The Guns of Solomon
by This is the real deal
Summary: Prophets and Oracles, Seers and diviners, all follow the whims of Fate and Fortune. So what are the Heroes of Camp Half-Blood supposed to do when the power of destiny itself falls to the entity known as The Light Bringer? The different mythologies will need to band together on a quest for the tools of Armageddon, and tying them together is a mortal hunter who defies fate itself.
1. WE GET ASSAULTED BY A FAIRY

**So here's the deal. This is post - Heroes of Olympus, with a few concepts picked up from Supernatural and Shin Megami Tensei. But otherwise, it's in Rick Riordan's world, so enjoy! I update every Saturday, so read, review, comment, critique, whatever. But have fun!**

 **Disclaimer: I do not claim to have created the characters made by Rick Riordan or his universe, I have not made them or his universe nor do I profit from it. This is (obviously) just a fan fiction tribute. Legal stuff out of the way...**

 **PART I: CHASING THE LIT FUSE**

 **CHAPTER 1: WE GET ASSAULTED BY A FAIRY**

The rain thundered on the asphalt like the mighty beating of a thousand drums. A few cars droned on in the distance, the sound of the rain nearly drowning out their fuel deprived engines. The whole town was drenched grey beneath the acidic dye of rainwater, colour bleaching out of what little light there was, bleeding through the streets and into the rusty gutters. On a day such as this, in a sleepy town like that, you wouldn't necessarily expect a lot of people to be outside, yet despite that, it almost seemed as if all of the world's sound had been concentrated into one corner of excitement, people armed with umbrellas and raincoats huddled outside and in a small restaurant placed in its own neat little corner. Riley stood with her back facing the street, analysing the restaurant. Sure enough, it was the same place that Chiron had described to her: a sign that looked too fresh to have been there for long, an assortment of pies and other confectionaries visible between the gaps of people huddled by the windows. She looked around, her eyes cast suspiciously to the shadows. Nothing abnormal. Not yet at least. She turned her attention back to the restaurant and proceeded to push and shove her way through the mass of flesh to the warm innards of the building. Beyond the congregation of hungry civilians, on the other side of the counter, were two uniformed individuals. A young red-headed woman frantically weaved from the back to the front of the counter, disappearing behind closed doors to arrive moments later with numerous cakes and pies in her hand.

"Two Victorian sponges right here, the apple pie for the customer in glasses, drenched in maple syrup like you asked. Who wanted the banana bread again?" She looked completely overwhelmed as excited customers practically shoved money into her face as they snatched and grabbed at the food before she could even place it on the counter. The other clerk was a large stern looking man, an almost inappropriate eyepatch stretched across his face as he silently and swiftly entered and exited the back room with stacks of elaborate cakes and exotic looking pastries.

"Excuse me, pardon me, just… freaking… get… out!" Riley forced her way past two slim teenage girls that would probably double in mass if they ate a single thing from the store, but was rebuffed by a skin headed man in a tank top. She clenched her fists, her blood bubbling and churning in her veins like a great cauldron. "Calm down Riley, they don't know any better…."

"Tough crowd huh?" a voice said next to her.

"Yeah…. I mean, come on, it's just pie."

"They've been like this for the past two weeks. Driving the others out of business already, it's crazy. It's almost impossible to get a bite to eat nowadays." Riley turned to the source of the voice. Standing next to her was a slim, lanky looking boy, maybe the same age as her, a grey beanie slotted on top of an unruly mess of black, almost grey hair. His eyes were mainly hidden by the fringe of his hair, but she could just barely make out a pair of silver eyes staring absentmindedly ahead. If he hadn't spoken up just then, she wouldn't have even noticed him. In fact, his complete lack of presence was astonishing considering the large brown trench coat that he wore, clearly failing to disguise just how small he was, and accentuating it instead.

"How long till everything calms down?" He rolled up a sleeve to glance at a black sports watch.

"Give it a few seconds, tops," he said. Sure enough, the eye patched sailor – type baker stood up from his stool (Riley hadn't even noticed he was seated until he began to tower over all his customers) and opened his mouth.

"Alright everybody, we're closed for the day, time to clear out, alright? Nothing else is in stock." The displeasure sounded obvious, and bordered on violent, but then the red-head jumped up to save the situation.

"If you come bright and early tomorrow, we'll have even _more_ for you all! And don't forget, it's pie Friday!" The people grumbled as they slowly shuffled out of the restaurant, but Riley lagged behind, staring at the fiery haired woman. After a while she finally acknowledged the intense gaze on her persons, turned to Riley, and smiled. "I'm sorry, but we're closed for the day. Time to go now kid."

"Oh, I'm not here to buy anything," Riley said, trying to sound as innocent as possible. "I just wanted to ask a few questions." The lady turned to the old man, who simply shrugged and retreated behind a door, lights going off in that room.

"Sure thing kiddo, but you better be quick! What's up?"

"There's a lot of people here, why's your food so special?" The women beamed a sugary sweet smile at her.

"Because we make our food with love of course!"

"So there's no secret ingredient or anything?" She shook her head. "I'm just wondering, 'cause this place is pretty new, and small too." Her smile dropped slightly into a tiny smirk.

"Tell me about it, we really need a lot more than just two people now, huh? I guess it's just that everyone wants something to talk about it, and this place works for it." She frowned as she stared harder at Riley. "I haven't seen you around before. What's your name?"

"Riley." The lady nodded her head.

"Riley huh? Well, my name's Leona. If you're here for a while, come by again. I recommend the milkshakes, so long as you're not on a diet!"

"Actually, I'd like to try one myself," Riley replied, placing some crumpled notes on the table. "Extra large, surprise me, as long as it's not caramel."

"Well we're really meant to be closing, but since I like you, no problem." Leona placed the notes in the cash register before swivelling on her heel to start preparing it. Riley waited patiently when a hand clasped her shoulder firmly. She felt her heart almost leap out of her chest as she quickly grabbed the wrist, twisting it and its owner around until they were face-to-face, her fist held up apprehensively.

"Hey, take it easy! I didn't mean to scare you!" The hand's owner said. It was the same boy from before. Riley relaxed, letting go.

"You were still here?" she asked, slightly creeped out that she hadn't even noticed him again.

"I really don't recommend that shake," he said. "Totally overpriced, and way too much sugar."

"No problem, I can handle it."

"No, I _really_ don't think that you should try some." Riley wasn't sure what it was, but the boy seemed far too serious for him to just be worried about her health and wallet. Before she could reply, Leona returned, an extra-large milkshake in her hand.

"Here you go, extra-large shake, chef's specialty. Don't drink it all in one go!" She nodded her head, stirring the milkshake with the pink bendy straw that was poking out of the top. She took a tentative sip, the thick, ice cold liquid pouring into her mouth and down her throat. She felt her eyes widen in pleasant surprise. The strawberry cooled and refreshed the throat she didn't even know was dry, the taste almost dancing on her taste buds, coaxing her into taking yet another lengthy draught from the magical drink. It was like drinking sparkles reflected off a crystal clear lake at midnight. The woman stared at her, the sugary-sweet smile back on her face. "Good huh?"

"It's excellent!" Riley replied. The woman looked pleased, her smile stretching from ear to ear. "Food of the gods and all that."

"I know right?"

"What did you mix into this?"

"Well, that's a closely guarded secret, I can't exactly tell you."

"I thought you said that it was love?"

"Exactly! And that's all you _really_ need, so you'd better get outta here, lights are nearly out." The old man had returned, flicking another switch that bathed half the room in perpetual darkness.

"Get outta here," the old man said. Riley looked between Leona and the old man, planning out her next moves.

"Just one last question then. This… secret ingredient, your 'love' or whatever, all of your food is made from it, right?"

"That's a pretty weird way to put it, but yes."

"Well then, I think that you better stop what you're doing." Leona frowned, her smile diminishing slightly.

"What? Why? We're just selling pies, that's all."

"Three weeks ago, a whole bunch of demigods travelling across the country were mysteriously assaulted and robbed just a few miles south of here, all their belongings, gone. Two of them were severely injured, it's a wonder they even escaped alive. Demigods. Robbed. I highly doubt ordinary crooks have the kind of power to do that. A few days later, and this sketchy restaurant opens up, outselling everybody in minutes. But nobody notices that the food's just a little bit _too_ addictive, even for the perfect apple pies. I wonder why?"

"Hey, what're you talking about? What does that all have to do with us?" Leona asked nervously. "And what's wrong with our food? Everyone loves it, is it a crime to make stuff that people like?" _She isn't wondering why I said Demigods,_ Riley thought. _Looks like I was right after all…._

"It's definitely a crime to steal the ambrosia of the gods just to start up a bakery. Aint that right, old man?" Leona fumed, opening her mouth to retort, when the old man finally spoke up.

"Get out of my store," he said. "This is no place for kids who can't understand my art."

"And don't want to enjoy it either!" Leona said with a humph. The boy (how could she keep forgetting he was there?) tapped her on the shoulder, temporarily taking her attention.

"What are you doing?" he whispered. "Are you trying to piss them off?"

"Why are you still here?" she asked. "Hurry up and go home already, watch TV or something."

"No, _you_ need to get out of here, this is really dangerous!" Leona coughed, interrupting the two of them.

"I don't know how you heard about the ambrosia, but this is none of your business you little brats. Now, get out of the way!"

"Just wait-" Leona waved her hand, Riley getting launched into the air, as if by some invisible force.

"Hey, girl!" In a few short moments, he'd been sent flying as well, landing with a crunch on one of the tables.

"That's enough!" the old man yelled. "You promised that you wouldn't hurt anybody else!" Leona strolled back to the man, ensnaring him in her slender arms.

"But they were going to hurt you. To hurt _us_. I'm just trying to keep you safe, that's all." Riley got up with a groan, trying to steady herself again.

"Hey, old man, believe me when I say this, but you do _not_ want to get involved with her."

"She's right," the boy said. "That thing's not human, it's a monster."

"Well, I wouldn't go that far but…."

"No, she's _actually_ a monster, a fae specifically. That's a Leanan Sidhe."

"A what now?" She looked at him in surprise.

"A Leanan Sidhe. Isn't that why you're here?" Riley looked at the woman who was now getting up, hostility clear in her eyes.

"So she's a monster, right?"

"Right-"

"That's all I needed to know." Riley said. She dashed towards her, pulling out a small concealed dagger. She swung rapidly, Leona weaving side to side, dodging each blow with ease. She grabbed Riley's knife arm, slamming her palm into her elbow. Sharp pain darted up and down the length of her arm as she dropped the blade, before Leona then spun her around, hurling her into the wall. She tried getting to her feet before receiving a swift kick to the face, knocking her down again.

"Hey!" Leona turned to the source of the voice just to see the boy holding a black 9mm pistol in his hands.

"Aww, what're you gonna do with that little toy?" she asked. "I'm a fae, lead bullets don't work on me."

"Who said they were lead?" He fired, his whole body shaking from the recoil. The room echoed with the sound of the gunshot, like a thunderbolt had just gone off inside everybody's skulls. Leona screamed, a sizeable chunk of flesh disappeared from her shoulder as she clutched it, the wound burning like it was a lightsaber cut. He fired a few more times, smouldering chunks breaking away from her body with each bang of the bullets. She snarled, leaping for him instead. He rolled out the way as she landed just where he was stood a moment ago, but she spun around almost instantly, kicking his wrist as he dropped his weapon, the gun sliding away beneath a chair. Riley yanked her knife off of the floor, charging for her again with a backwards grip. She stabbed down with it, but she grabbed her wrist at the last moment.

"Nice try kiddo," she said with a sly grin. She didn't look so pretty anymore, her red hair now standing on end, moving and flickering like a flame. Her skin had turned ghostly pale, glowing red veins visible beneath it, and her eyes were now crimson. Before she could do anything else, the sound of splintering wood accompanied a chair smashing on the back of her head. It looked like it had almost no effect on her, but that one second of confusion was just enough time for Riley to escape, punch her just hard enough to make her stumble, swivel around and run, trying her best to ignore the searing pain her knuckles were in. Her jaw must have been made of iron or something harder. She turned her head around just long enough to see the boy pull out an oversized shotgun from his trench coat and fire it at the monster. She screamed as her whole body disappeared seemingly into thin air, but that didn't stop him from turning and following after Riley. They made their way to the back exit, tore open the door and slammed it shut behind them.

"Okay, why the hell do you have a gun on you?!" she asked. " _Two_ guns! You're definitely too young to be carrying those!"

"And why are you strong enough to punch a monster in the face, and have it actually work?!" he retorted. "In case you didn't notice, I broke a _chair_ over her head!" He got to work blocking the door, placing a few trash cans and some planks of wood in front of it.

"Is it dead? What is that thing anyway?" she asked. He shook his head gravely.

"No, just pissed off. It will reform soon enough. That, was a Leanan Sidhe. They're faes that can bless people with enormous creativity and inspiration, with music, poetry, painting, all sorts of things. This one must have been helping the old man here with his cooking. But, there's a cost. They drain your life energy over time, leaving the victim as an empty husk that dies early. For all we know, that guy could have been in his late twenties, not his fifties. So I was here to kill it." The banging on the door caught both of their attention, the door splintering and cracking with each blow.

"How do we kill it?" Riley asked.

"They're weak to iron, but not much else, and nothing short of a stab to the heart or decapitation. Salt slows them down, but it won't kill them." Riley looked around her rapidly, spotting a pipe running up against the wall. She grabbed it, tearing it off the wall moments before the door was launched against the other side of the alley. Leona was stood in front of the door looking suitably pissed, her eyes falling on the boy. Her hair was now _actually_ fire at this point, almost no semblance of its former self. With superhuman speed, she moved right in front of him, punching him deftly in the jaw. His legs crumpled beneath him as he fell to the ground, disoriented. She kicked him in the stomach as he rolled over from the impact. Riley hefted the pipe over her shoulder before swinging it like a baseball bat, but she caught it just moments before impact. She howled in pain as her palm bubbled and boiled where it had come into contact with the pipe. She yanked it from Riley's hands, nearly taking her whole arm with it, and kneed her in the stomach, Riley rising four feet into the air from the impact. She clutched her stomach in agony as Leona stood above her.

"This will teach you to get in the way of our art…."

"Telekhine!" A bright spark of red and blue light filled the entire alleyway. Both Riley and Leona shielded their eyes from it before finally turning to it as it began to die down. The boy was standing upright, holding some kind of portable device in his hand, a Gameboy or something similar. Except that it was glowing completely blue, along with his whole arm, skeletal wire-thin arcs of electricity around it. Next to him was what at first looked like a perfectly upright, seven foot seal, which was hard enough to process on its own, but upon further inspection it _looked_ like it had hands and feet, albeit small and stubby ones, and its head had been replaced by a Doberman's long canine snout. It also had an absurd small blue waistcoat for some reason.

The boy pointed at the Leanan Sidhe. "Sic 'em." It growled before diving for her, jaws wide open for tearing and shredding. It dug its fang into her arm as she struggled to get it off, waving her arm around and slapping it violently. He looked at Riley. "He can't restrain her forever. Hurry up and finish her off!" Riley swallowed her shock and nodded her head, pulling out her dagger. The Leanan Sidhe slammed the creature against a wall, the very ground shaking from the impact as the limb was engulfed in dust and debris, yellow dust flitting around inside it. Satisfied that she'd eliminated the pest, she turned away from the wall, just for her eyes to widen in shock as a dagger embedded itself in her chest. She looked down at the blade that was up to its hilt in her chest, then looked up slowly at the Riley, her arm still extended from throwing it. Her mouth opened and shut, mouthing inaudible words before fi\nally letting out a shrill scream, disappearing in a cloud of yellow dust. Riley collapsed onto her rear, gasping for air after having it all kicked out of her, the unnoticeable pain in her limbs now slowly catching up with her body, and the shock of seeing a random monster actually _help_ her was still something she had to get used to. She looked at the boy who stared back at her, and both of them knew they had questions for the other.

"Who _are_ you?" they both said at the same time.

"You first, seeing as I'm the one who got the last blow in," Riley said. He looked around, noting the rapidly encroaching dusk.

"Can we do this somewhere a little safer please? With a little more light maybe."

* * *

After doing a full sweep of the restaurant, and trying to explain the events to the rather crestfallen (and now talentless) old man, they found a few pouches of suspicious looking liquid that Riley was fairly sure was ambrosia. They left, and after a horrifyingly overpriced taxi drive, arrived at a seedy looking motel. The kid seemed to have enough money at hand to pay for two cheap rooms, and even a fake id in case anybody wanted to know how old he was or where his parents were. (Admittedly, two very good questions) They both hunkered down in Riley's room first, the maroon wallpaper slowly peeling off. The furniture looked like it had seen better days and Riley just hoped that the bedsheets were actually clean, but there wasn't much she could expect from a random kid's pocket money. She collapsed on the bed, not willing to admit that her hand was still hurting. She heard the boy pull up a chair and plop himself down in it.

"Alright, you start," Riley began. "You could see through the mist and hunt monsters. You're not from Camp Half-Blood?"

"Camp half… um, no. I'm not… from wherever you said. My name's Zachariah. I'm pretty much a demon hunter. Well, a demon hunter in training. You see, my mom's a demon hunter, she travels around the country hunting down supernatural creatures. Empusas, telekhines, wendigoes, dracaenas, rakshasas…."

"Okay, is it weird that I've only heard of half of those creatures?"

"You must be new to the business then." Riley resisted the urge to punch him in his big stupid looking face. She'd been doing this all her life, what did he know? "Anyway, because of that I'm always changing schools and stuff. But now my mom's gone missing. Ain't exactly the best time for me to be stuck in class. So I'm trying to find her. That Leanan Sidhe was just a little pit stop." Riley nodded her head, trying to absorb all of the information. "Well I've said something about myself, what's your story?"

"Well, I'm Riley. I'm a demigod from Camp Half-Blood, and I was sent here on a quest to…." She was interrupted by Zachariah's raucous laughter as he nearly fell off of his chair, clutching his sides. "What?! What's so funny?!"

"I'm sorry, you're a _demigod?_ From _Camp Half-Blood?_ "

"Yeah, what's so wrong with that?"

"I'm sorry, but I just plain can't take that seriously! That's like somebody telling me to watch out for the tooth fairy!" He stopped to catch his breath, wiping the tears from his eyes, then broke out into a second verse of laughter. Riley's face was turning more and more red by the second.

"What's so unbelievable about that?"

"Hey, Raleigh-"

" _Riley!_ "

"Riley, I've seen a lot of things, stuff that your nightmares would run from, stuff that you'd have to take a really heavy acid trip to even think of, so I've got a high tolerance for the insane, but I'm pretty darn sure that _half human half gods_ don't exist anymore, and if they _did_ , they sure as hell wouldn't be struggling to take out a simply fairy. If that was it, then maybe I'd be cool, but a _camp?_ Like, a little supernatural summer camp?"

"It's not much more unbelievable than your stupid little story!"

"Yeah, well I have proof. The fake ids, the cool demon-slaying gun, heck you _saw_ me fighting that thing!"

"And you saw _me_ finish it off! Wait a second, so that means you're not a half-blood?" He shook his head.

"One-hundred-per-cent human," he said, emphasising the figures.

"That doesn't make any sense. Then how do you know about monsters? How do you even _see_ them? Shouldn't they be shrouded in-"

"The mist? The all-too-mythical fog that hides the monsters from the eyes of salary-earning-God-fearing folk? Same way you do probably: Jedi mind tricks." That hadn't answered anything, but Riley had long since given up on trying to find out anything from him. The longer they talked, the less made sense to her.

"Just… just get out of my room already. Let me sleep." Zachariah shrugged his shoulders and slowly got up. Just before leaving, he pulled out a piece of chalk from his pockets, hunched down on the floor in front of the door and started scribbling something on the floorboards. "Um… what are you doing?"

"Drawing a devil's trap. Demons you know, can't predict them." Riley just shook her head and closed her eyes, sinking deeper into unconsciousness.

"I'm not sure I want to wake up tomorrow…."


	2. I GIVE A DEMONSTRATION

**Yeah, another chapter! I know I said I'd update once a week, but I got impatient, so here it is! Oh, and please leave a little review there somewhere, I reply personally to every single review I get, without exceptions, and with anonymous/guest reviews, I reply within the next chapter. Anyway, here's something to read!**

 **CHAPTER 2: I GIVE A DEMONSTRATION**

Zachariah woke up with the compelling urge to shoot something. He couldn't quite figure out why at first until he remembered that there was a potential pagan goddess sleeping just a few rooms away from him. Normally he'd never believe a story as ridiculous as that, but his hunter's instinct was telling him that something wasn't right with that girl. That, and the way she decked the Leanan Sidhe was still creeping him out a little bit. If she was actually telling the truth about that, then he already knew what Mom would have done by then, and it wouldn't have been fun for Riley. But that wasn't possible. He'd never run into anybody like that before, and he didn't think he was going to run into anyone like that now. He freshened himself up, put on a fresh pair of pants, and after emptying out the room of all weapons and donning his trench coat, headed to Riley's room. He knocked rapidly on the door. He could hear the sound of water running, and he almost turned around, but it opened almost before he'd even touched it.

"Come in, come in!" Riley bounded out in khaki green camo pants and black combat boots, an orange tank top with a red boar's head emblazoned on it beneath the unzipped green jacket. Give her an assault rifle and she would have looked ready for a war. "So, seeing as you clearly don't believe me, and I'm not sure that I believe you're not a demigod, I'll just have to prove myself to you! Come on!" She leaped inside, Zachariah tossing his hands up in the air in exhaustion before following after her. The bathroom door was open, steam pouring out as water poured out of the shower. The window was wide open, letting in plenty of natural light.

"I hate doing this in bathrooms of all places…. Yo, you got a gold drachma?" Riley asked.

"Like, ancient Greek ones?" He shook his head. Riley rolled her eyes and dug deep into her pockets.

"Great, the only competent guy in the nearest hundred miles and he's totally flat broke."

"Why would I need to be packing archaic coins anyway?"

"I dunno, maybe you can chuck them at a leprechaun to lure them out or something?"

"I'm pretty sure that wouldn't work…." She fished out an old, heavily patterned gold coin from her pocket, and Zachariah could just barely make out a building on one side of it. She tossed it into the steam, the coin mysteriously disappearing mid rotation.

"Iris, O Goddess of the Rainbow." Zachariah had to suppress his laughter, a wise decision as soon as Riley glared at him before continuing. "Accept my offering. Show me Reika of the Hermes cabin!" The fog shimmered and bent to her will, colours and images swirling in it before finally coming to rest on a young girl. She looked like she was in some kind of cabin or cottage, and there was certainly a lot of noise and general distraction behind it. "Reika. Reika!" The girl turned around, then let out a big toothy grin, waving animatedly at them.

"Scrying magic?" Zachariah asked. "Being spoken in English? That's a first for me."

"Hey, Reika," Riley said, ignoring her unwilling companion. "I've finished the job, I need transport out of here."

"No prob, I've already got my guys on the way!" she replied animatedly. Even between their magic screen, the energy leaping off her skin could be felt. It was too hard to make out anything clearly through the screen, but even through it the neon highlights could be seen clearly in her hair. "You're still staying at the same place, right? Of course you are, where else can you afford to crash?"

"Whatever you say, I've still got the room service, and all-I-can-eat breakfast buffets, so _ha_!"

"'The all you can eat monster table, complete with chocolate cake, ambrosia, and a side serving of demi-god hero!'" She mimicked just about every commercial in existence in that one sentence, then erupted into uncontrollable giggling at her own joke for some reason, and Zachariah was starting to suspect that she hadn't even realised that he was there when she suddenly asked about his presence.

"This here's Zach-"

"My name's _Zachariah_ ," he corrected with a grumble, but Riley continued anyway.

"He helped me out with a monster problem on the way here. And Zach, this is Reika."

"Demigod?"

"Could be, but I can't tell which one yet. He had a pretty weird power…."

"I'm not a demigod already! I'm just a hunter!"

"Who can see through the mist, fights monsters, and even _summons_ them? Yeah, I don't think so!"

"Wait, he can _summon_ them? Like, even giant stuff like drakons and stuff? _Totally awesome!_ But I've never heard of a demigod that can do _that_!"

"Don't talk like I'm not here too! Are you guys even listening to me?"

"I'll see you back at camp," Riley said, clearly confirming Zach's concerns. The connection petered out, leaving them alone in the bathroom. An awkward silence hung in the air once the girl's enthusiasm had left. This was probably the point where normal people were meant to talk about normal things like 'hey, get a good night's sleep?' 'Well geez, it was fantastic, dreaming I got my guts ripped out by a wendigo. Want some breakfast?' But Zach didn't really do that whole normal thing. He didn't even know what teenaged girls liked, super strength or not. Just the thought of being alone in a motel room with one would have been enough to send his brain into overdrive on any other occasion, but his instincts wouldn't let the girl's potentially godlike influence go. This was a creature he needed to hunt. He needed to _kill_ before she would get the chance to hurt anybody else, but he'd seen for himself that she didn't seem _too_ much like the bloodthirsty type. Before he could think another two seconds on it, he was yanked to his feet and basically dragged to the bottom floor and out the motel.

Even in broad daylight, the town still looked like it lacked enthusiasm, and the abnormality of the crowd yesterday clearly stood out. There was no way that place was seeing any business anytime in the next decade. It was like there was a void around it, repelling people from stepping anywhere near it. In some deep corner of his being, he felt kind of bad for the lonely old man inside, trying to bake his way back into business, but the rest of him thought it was his own fault forging a deal with a demon.

"So, what are we waiting for?" he asked.

"Just give it a minute," she replied. "You'll see soon enough." Something told him that he _wouldn't_ see anything. Not if the mist had anything to say about it at least, so he dug into his trench coat and fished out a pair of gold rimmed motorcycle goggles and put them on. "Um, what are you doing?"

"Protection against the mist," he said.

"Protection? Wait, why would you need that? I thought you said you could see through the mist?"

"Only partially. Jedi mind tricks, remember?"

"No, I _don't_ remember, you haven't explained what you meant by that, what mind tricks? Who exactly _are_ you?"

"A question I've been trying to get out of you for a while now." Before the conversation could go anywhere else, he heard a sound like… like horses neighing? And the beating of a very powerful set of wings. It wasn't something he'd encountered, that much was for sure. He turned around to look for the sound, seeing nothing nearby until he looked up. He nearly fell backwards in shock, the sight too hard for him to believe. What looked like two winged white horses came cantering out of the sky, a gleaming gold chariot being pulled behind them. They landed as gently as a gold chariot and two ponies could on the tarmac, slowing to a halt. Riding on the back of the chariot were two people. One was a big bald guy who's face looked like it had seen one too many bar brawls. The other was a blonde girl about a third of his size. Her eyes looked like they were closed, a dazed smile on her face. She might have been sleeping if she hadn't been steering the chariot. Maybe she _was_ sleeping, and they didn't know it. The guy was in an orange vest and faded jeans, while the girl was in a much too baggy shirt with all sorts of psychedelic colours and jeans. All she needed was a flower headband to be a modern day hippie.

"Hey Ash, Butch," Riley said. The girl, probably Ash, held up a peace sign while Butch nodded his head.

"What the hell am I looking at?!" Zach asked incredulously.

"What, the chariot? Yeah, I guess you wouldn't see these every day…."

"No, no, not the chariot, the freaking winged… these are pegasi! Look, I've hunted a lot of things, but pegasi are definitely up there on the 'urban myth' slot right with the tooth fairy and unicorns!"

"Looks like you've got a lot of learning to do," Riley said with a smirk.

"I thought we were just picking you up?" Butch asked. "Who's this guy?"

"Oh yeah, Reika probably hasn't informed you yet. This is a new guy I picked up on the way. He's pretty tough, even though he looks wimpy."

"I will try not to get offended by that…."

"I think he might be a demigod."

"I am _not_ a pagan god's kid, how many times have I got to say it?" Riley held her hand to the side of her face in an exaggerated stage whisper.

"I think he's in denial," she said.

"Just… whatever, I'm guessing you want me to get on that thing huh?"

"You haven't got much of a choice here," Riley said. "It's not safe for a half-blood to wander around on their own."

"Yeah, I've noticed, just last week I nearly got _eaten_. I think I'm used to it by now." She grabbed his arm, and probably with much more force than she'd intended, yanked him after her towards the chariot. "You're coming with me whether you like it or not. You at _least_ have to stay for dinner. Think of it as payment for your help with the fairy thing." He shrugged his shoulders in resignation. It was pretty clear that he couldn't overpower her even if he tried, so he allowed himself to be lead into the chariot. The horses… _pegasi_ , neighed one more time before starting up, Butch clutching the reigns. From so close, he couldn't help but notice the tattoo of a rainbow on his bicep. A giant man the size of a cyclops with a rainbow on his arm was flying winged ponies… Mom always said that he would go a little nuts in the business, but that was definitely not the way he thought it would start.

The chariot started off into the sky, and Zach found himself clutching the sides until his knuckles had turned white. There was something very _very_ wrong about seeing a town disappear thirty feet below him in a glorified go-kart. Ash turned around from the front of the chariot. Her eyes were still closed but Zach felt sure that her gaze was centred on him.

"So, has Riley explained who we are?" she asked.

"Well, not you guys in particular, but she mentioned a few things. Something about half-bloods and gods and stuff."

"I would have explained it better if you'd just been more cooperative!"

"How about we _all_ get up to speed before we do anything else?" Butch asked. Riley explained the events that had transpired yesterday, how she had caught onto the trail of stolen ambrosia to a restaurant, and how the waitress had actually been an evil spirit. She mentioned how Zach had been able to see through the mist and was already armed, and together they managed to defeat it and get back the ambrosia. Zachariah kind of hoped that she would leave out the part about him summoning a telekhine, but she seemed to focus on that especially.

"There was like this _huge_ flash of blue light, no, red light, filling the _whole alley_!" With every other word she moved her arms around, the chariot getting dangerously close to capsizing.

"Riley!" Butch roared, though even with his intimidating stature, Zach could hear panic in his voice. She calmed down, though not much.

"Anyway, the next moment there was a telekhine standing next to him, but here's the thing: it wasn't one of the annoying ones creating weapons to try and kill us with, this one was on _his_ side! And it listened to his every command like it was his, tore right into the monster! Obviously it wasn't strong enough to win on its own, but it slowed her down enough for me to dig a knife into her. Man, that _really_ caught me off guard!"

"So _that's_ why she thinks you're a half-blood," Ash said, but her faint eyebrows furrowed in concern, an expression they didn't look used to wearing. "But you don't really _feel_ like a half-blood though. Like… it's like your aura's just not right. It seems… diluted?"

"Then maybe he's the kid of some minor god, I don't know. Anyway, we can't exactly leave him behind!"

"Hey, this isn't fair," Zach spoke up. "You guys are now all up to speed about me and my powers, but I still don't really know who you guys are. Who exactly _are_ you?" Ash shushed him to silence, almost like a mother would to her child, and Zach wasn't entirely sure whether he was being looked down at or there was something very wrong with the woman.

"Rest easy child. I can sense the turmoil within your soul. A warrior thrust deep into the seas of his enemies, lost and confused with no means to attack, you search for your bearings amidst the chaos. But your lighthouse is not in sight, and the blows of your allies turn the tides against you. Don't worry, you'll find your peace when you rest at shore." Zach stared at her for a solid minute, calculating a compelling and reasoned argument before answering.

"What?"

"Don't mind her," Riley said. "She gets like that sometimes. She's really into people's souls and their aura or whatever. Just relax, it will make more sense when you see what we're about. We're just taking you to meet more of us. You know, us half-bloods. Hey look, we're nearly there!" Zach wasn't sure just how far they'd travelled in that short span of time, but when he looked over the chariot he could just make out a collection of small buildings below him. He barely had time to examine it when the chariot zoomed to the ground, snatching the breath from his mouth. It clattered onto a lone road, a large hill to the right of it.

"Where are we?" Zach asked.

"Long Island Sound," Riley replied as they all got off the chariot. Butch led the pegasi with their cargo by their reins. "At the bottom of Half-Blood hill." They climbed to the top of the hill, and the view on the other side into the valley was not what he was expecting.

Sure enough, it _looked_ like a normal summer camp, complete with an arrangement of cabins that were in some kind of horse shoe formation, but he didn't need a gut feeling to tell him that the pitch black cabin with green flames on the sides of the doors was definitely not normal. Or the giant climbing wall he could see further to the back with lava rivulets running down them. For the challenge of course. Lava makes everything that much harder. The pegasi racing in the sky were certainly not something he was used to seeing either. At least the campers looked normal, the younger ones running around between cabins, playing tag and tackling each other to the ground. Although he couldn't quite wrap his head around the ones that had goat legs instead of human ones and small horns out the top of their heads. Or the elf-like, often odd coloured girls hanging around the forest. Why was there a giant forest again?

Zach took off his driving goggles and took another look at it. The camp was gone, replaced by a big barn-like building with a sign saying 'Delphi Strawberry Service' and a few strawberry fields. There was even a farmer in the distance. He put on his goggles again, the camp magically returning to view.

"Dude, the mist is killer around here," he said, to nobody in particular.

"Welcome to Camp Half-Blood," Riley said. "Home for us half-bloods. Make yourself comfy." She stepped forward towards the valley, the others following her. Zach hesitated, reluctant to follow into this obviously hazardous vacation stop, like he'd suddenly reasoned _geez, this is kind of dumb, Zachariah, maybe I'll get myself killed next week instead. How about a pizza for now?_ However, he still needed to see if what Riley was saying was true. He followed them, but as soon as he'd taken a few steps he could feel every nerve in his body jumping inside him, yelling at him to leave. The next moment, a roar. A loud, unbearably loud and threatening roar. For a second, he almost panicked, but he quickly regained control of his nerves, turning to the source of the sound.

Lo and behold, what else could it be but your friendly neighbourhood, thousand kilo komodo dragon? Zach yelped in shock as the reptile leaped for his throat. He just barely dived out of the way, the dragon's claws in the ground where he was stood just moments before. He pulled out two pistols from his cloak, pumping led into the scales of the lizard. Correction, it _wasn't_ a komodo dragon, it was an _actual, live, fire breathing dragon_ , toasting everything around it as it slithered and thrashed about. The bullets didn't look like they were doing anything to it, even as he emptied both magazines into it. It lurched again, pinning him to the ground with a gigantic claw. He was trapped, but there was no way he was letting that be the end of him. He fished into his pockets, grasping one hand around a bottle of holy water, and the other at a sawn-off shotgun, already loaded with buckshot. It was only then, with the dragon's jaws at his throat that the others rushed to his aid, yelling and pulling the dragon off of him.

"Down boy, down!" Riley yelled. "Hey, what's wrong with you today?!"

"Relax Peleus, he's a friend," Ash said, her voice far more soothing than the barely concealed rage in Riley's. The dragon, Peleus, stepped backwards slowly, still growling at him. Zach stood up, still pointing the barrel of his gun at the dragon. "Zach, put down your gun. He won't hurt you."

"Nu – uh, no way," Zach replied. "Regular bullets didn't work, but a dose of holy buckshot will do the trick if it so much as looks at me funny."

"Peleus won't harm you, he must have just been scared because you smelled too mortal."

"Yeah, probably the gunpowder doing it," Riley suggested. "Half – Bloods don't use guns a lot. As long as you put down your weapons, Peleus won't hurt you." Every fibre in his being was telling him not to trust them. But they were also the same people who saved him from being skewered by their unauthorised pet. Reluctantly, he lowered his gun, but in his pocket he still clutched tight to the holy water. Wasn't sure what good it would do him, but he could never be too careful. Peleus seemed to accept this, slinking back to the tree it came from, wrapping itself around it and quietly going to sleep, like nothing happened. He silently picked up his stuff, and walked down the hill, pretending not to hear the whispers Butch and Ash were exchanging.

Now that he was closer and could see everything clearly, he found himself even more worried than when he'd started. They'd gone straight to the centre of camp and found themselves surrounded by a ring of over a dozen cabins, all of them vastly different in design to the last one. One of them had the sound of thunder constantly rumbling inside it and an odd lightning pattern seemingly projected onto the front doors, though the projector's location was anybody's guess. Another had giant seashells and pieces of coral stuck all over it like the whole building had been dipped in the sea for a few decades, without the algae and stench of dying fish. One of them looked like it was practically vandalised, blood red paint randomly slapped in uneven strips over it, with barbed wire on the roof and a very large (and probably very real) boar's head over the door. The constant rock music blaring from inside betrayed some very angry inhabitants. He wasn't even sure if they even _were_ cabins anymore.

They ignored all of those and went straight for the biggest building there, a place Zach later learned had appropriately been named "The Big House". The Big House was a large baby blue two story vacation home, complete with a front porch with deck chairs already pulled out. There were two people on the front porch playing a card game, and from the looks of things it was getting pretty heated. One of them was in a wheelchair, with a beard and colonial looking moustache that looked like too much trouble to take care of, and was dressed in a brown jacket and slacks. Despite his comrades wheelchair, the other looked like he was in less shape than the first, being slightly chubby with a puffy face, curly black hair and a bright red nose. He looked like he either needed a drink, or already had one too many. The second man noticed the troop approaching him.

"Ah, Rooney, what have you brought us this time?" the man asked Riley.

"Yeah, Miley, what exactly have you pushed me into?" Zach added.

"Oh no, don't you _both_ pick on me now!" Riley cried. Zach smirked before he locked eyes with the man.

"Don't want to be here?" he asked.

"Starting to get those vibes," Zach replied.

"Give it a few decades, then you'll be walking in my shoes." The man in the wheelchair had to clear his throat to get their attention.

"I see that you're back from your quest. I apologise for the lack of a good reception, most of the campers are currently occupied with a game of capture the flag."

"Ah what?! It's Friday already?! Ah I totally forgot! I was totally looking forward to stabbing a couple of people!"

"Peace, Riley, there will come other capture the flag games," Ash assured her. Riley mumbled something under her breath, but didn't complain anymore. "Chiron, Mr. D, when we were picking up Riley, she brought him along as well. He helped her to complete her quest, and might have even saved her life. We think he might be a demigod as well." The man in the wheelchair, Chiron from the way she'd directed the name, wheeled himself a little bit closer to Zach, as if to inspect him better.

"Hmm… something about that claim bothers me…."

"Huh? What're you talking about?" Riley asked. "He can see through the mist and everything, he already knew about monsters and he was strong enough to take one down, maybe even on his own. We should at least keep him here to find out."

"Maybe, but he looks pretty ordinary to me," Mr. D said, clearly more focused on his card game than on dealing with the newbie. "I mean, I don't exactly feel any even remotely god-like presence off this guy. Feels more like a slice of week old cheese."

"Excuse me?!"

"Putting it more delicately," Chiron interrupted, before Zach could get any more worked up. "Dionysus has a point. Demigods have a very distinct presence about them. Even their smell is different. And while I can smell many different monsters coming off of you, underlying it all is definitely something more human than most of us."

"But that doesn't make sense! Especially with that trick of his!" Riley screamed. "Come on Zach, do that little trick of yours, come on, come on!"

"I told you, my name is Zachariah, and nobody's seeing any trick of mine unless somebody can explain _everything_ to me, no missing little details here and there." Chiron sighed, as if he could only see things getting more complicated from that point forth. Zach couldn't help but agree with him either.

"Do you know anything about Greek myths?" Was that a serious question? Zach probably knew at least one myth from every nation in the world. Heck, he'd _seen_ a couple of creatures from them. Still, he nodded his head politely.

"Minotaurs and stuff, no problem."

"Well, what if I told you that all of them were real? All the legends you've heard, the Greek gods, the heroes, oracles and evil demons, the whole lot?"

"I would say I already knew. And a lot more things beside that."

"Great! That saves us some time then!" Mr. D exclaimed. "Well, you're in Camp Half-Blood. The only safe haven out there for you half-mortal menaces. Here we basically babysit you and teach you guys everything from how to not die to making your own weapons and ancient lore and customs. We've even got great camp food. Yay." He didn't exactly sound too enthusiastic when he said all of that though.

"Well," Chiron continued. "Our worlds are divided from the mortal one by the mist. I believe you've come across it before?" Zach nodded his head in recognition.

"The mist is like a veil, a thin layer that hides the supernatural from the way-too-natural. If a giant eight headed monster is running around, a regular person's vision would be twisted and they would see something else they could understand easier, like a giant eight vined carnation or something. Only supernatural entities, and a select few mortals can see spirits and demons through the mist.

"Then sometimes, you understand, the Greek gods and goddesses come down from Olympus to observe, or directly intervene in the affairs of mortals. And sometimes, they end up… well, 'siring' a mortal child or two."

"Or ten, depending on their mood…." The glares he received from him silenced Zach, but Dionysus tipped his head, as if grudgingly accepting the comment.

"In any case, the offspring of a godly parent and a mortal one is a demigod, a half-blood, with some of the powers of their immortal parent. They can see past the mist, and are stronger than most mortals. But because of their powers, they attract monsters and all sorts of creatures to them. Most of them die before they turn twelve." _Well, that's a cheery thought to be living with. Or_ not _be living with._ "So this camp was set up to try and boost those survival chances. This place, Camp Half-Blood, is basically a training ground for these demigods, and one of the only places in America that they can be safe. We prepare them for the world, shape them up, and train them to deal with monsters. It's also quite a lot of fun living here."

"Wait a second, you said that these half – bloods are like, the children of gods, right? And your name," now directing his speech to the guy in the Hawaiian shirt, "Must be Dionysus? As in, _the_ Dionysus? God of wine, madness…."

"Ecstasy, parties, the whole lot," he said, looking slightly more puffed up than usual now somebody had recognised him. For just a second, his eyes flashed a deep purple, like an ethereal flame had lit up behind his skull. Then, the reaction that Riley _hadn't_ expected to see in the presence of Mr. D: Zachariah turned so pale he was practically translucent, stumbling backwards away from him, his whole body trembling with trepidation. Ash was quickly by his side, trying her best to calm him down, but it didn't look like it was working.

"Whoa, I've never seen anybody get scared of the lord of grapevines," Riley commented. Mr. D also looked surprised, as if it were the first time that anybody had actually acknowledged his god-like status.

"I shouldn't be here," Zach said. "This place is dangerous for somebody like me."

"Everywhere's dangerous for a half-blood, it's just one of the perks. This place is just slightly _less_ dangerous."

"No, that's fine for you guys, but as I keep trying to tell you, I'm completely mortal, nothing special about me."

"It's hard to wrap your head around at first," Chiron said. "Normally I would tell you to stay a little bit longer and wait to see if a godly parent claims you, but I'm also getting the feeling that you may be right. And after all, we can't actually hold you here against your will. Tell me, did Peleus, the guard dragon, react with hostility towards you?"

"He tried to rip out my throat. Is that his way of playing fetch or was I genuinely in grave danger?"

"Strange. He dislikes mortals, but he doesn't normally attack them. Just, scare them away. But if you were actually a demigod, and escorted at that, Peleus should have left you alone…."

"What?! There's no _way_ this guy's an ordinary mortal!" Riley yelled. He slapped Zach across the shoulder, the pain shooting up and down his whole arm. "Come on, show them that cool thing you can do! You know, _that thing_!"

"Okay, okay! You don't have to push me around so much," Zach tried to gather his distracted thoughts. He pulled out what looked like a portable game console from one of his many excessively deep pockets. With his other hand he held out a small journal or notebook. "I'm guessing you want something that's vaguely Greek looking, right?" With his thumb and forefinger, he turned the pages until he stopped on something he obviously liked. He pressed a few buttons on the device, and again he was enveloped in red light, white sparks of lightning leaping forth from his body. His bones were visible through his right arm, blue wire thin sparks running through it, the screen on his device flashing.

" **Initiate Summon Sequence,** " he commanded, his beanie flying off his head from an invisible force, strands of his hair floating up as if from the wind. The buffets and gales of wind were pushing back against everyone gathered around him. Riley was struggling to accept that this was the same person who seemed so weak and helpless just moments before, the intensity in his eyes enough to match the fire of a god's.

"Come on out, Ventus!" he roared. A black and red flash of electricity materialised in front of him, a figure forming in front of them. Riley was tempted to shield her eyes, but she didn't feel like letting Chiron win out in terms of who had stronger nerves as he stared starkly into it. The lightning faded away, leaving a swirling black mist in its place. Or at least it _looked_ like a mist at first. Whatever it was, it was made entirely of black smoke, with a pair of slightly darker smoky wings sticking out of what was probably its back, if a tornado could have a back. There was the semblance of a face near the top of the storm funnel, a pearly white smile and steel grey eyes staring at her.

The spirit, the ventus, stared at Zachariah, as if awaiting orders. "You don't need to fight anything, they just want to get a better look at you." It was hard to describe the movement as a nod of his head, but that's what he did before looking back at the crowd. Butch only seemed to be mildly surprised, and Riley had already seen something like it before, so it wasn't anything new. Chiron's expression, however, had turned to thunder, and even Mr. D looked suitably shocked. Ash was right next to the creature though, pacing around it as she stared in wonder.

"Whoa, you summoned it here," she said in awe. "How did you do that? Can you make it do what you want?"

"Uh, yeah, pretty much," Zach replied. "As long as the monster's strong enough to do it, they will listen. I've got more of them stacked up than just this guy, from loads of different mythologies too. Watch this." That intense glare returned to his eyes as he pressed another button on the device, the pages in his journal flicking to another entry. "Nekomata!" A second flash of lightning materialised next to the ventus, the lightning fading away to reveal what looked like some kind of woman, though it barely took a second to realise she wasn't human. She was covered from head to toe in blue fur and had a large pair of feline ears instead of human ones. She was dressed very lightly, in a yellow tank top and brown shorts, with a tiny cut in them giving room for a swishing blue tail. A golden bell was tied around her neck. She yawned, as if she'd been asleep the whole time, a pair of feline fangs visible in her mouth, then shook her head violently as if trying to wake herself up. She had curly long dark purple hair that moved like waves with her head.

"No fair, why're you summoning me now?" she asked in a whiny voice. "I was just having the best dream…." If she wasn't surprised at her location before, she definitely was once Ash started examining her from close up. For a moment it looked like she was going to reach up and touch one of her furry ears, but she resisted the urge when the nekomata shied away nervously, her face slightly red. What sounded like a deep purring sound filled the air. "You want to check if they're real? You can touch them if you want, but not too much. It feels weird."

"Please don't give her too much attention," Zach said. "She'll never leave you alone if you do."

"But, she's so furry…." For some reason, the ventus looked offended, as if the spotlight had shifted to this smaller, lesser being than him, and quite literally stormed off. Before it could get too far, Zach apologetically recalled him to his device, the spirit disappearing in a blue flash. He pointed it at the nekomata as well, but she didn't seem too bothered, yawning as she disappeared into it. He turned to Chiron and Mr. D, both of them momentarily speechless. Then, Chiron spoke up.

"That is… not supposed to be possible," he said slowly. As laid back as he seemed, he didn't exactly seem to be the type that has no problems of his own, yet here his look made it seem as if he'd lost ten years of his life. After too long a pause, he finally asked to see the device that he was using. He was tempted to flat-out refuse, but Mr. D was glaring at him as if at any moment he might turn into a snake and kill them, so he didn't have much of a choice. It was a bit like a Nintendo DS, able to flip open with two screens. The bottom screen had pictures of the two monsters he had just summoned, along with some information relating to them, but they all disappeared before Chiron could read any of it, leaving the screen blank. He turned it around a bit, examining it from all sides. If he hadn't just seen its power with his own eyes, he would never have believed that the object in his hands was anything other than a game's console. He carefully handed it back, as if it might explode.

"I'm assuming nobody else can use it." He nodded, but it wasn't really a question, more like _if anybody else can use it, I'm labelling this a health hazard and destroying it_. "Well, if you truly _are_ a demigod, then you'll be claimed by your godly parent soon enough. You're round about the right age, aren't you? Thirteen?"

"I'm fourteen," Zach grumbled.

"Of course. Anyway, it's still true that Camp Half-Blood is a safe haven, even for you. Why don't you get a feel for the place? Riley, why don't you show him around?" Riley nodded her head, although her brow was so deeply furrowed he felt if she frowned any more the wrinkles in her forehead would start hitting bedrock.

"That's okay, I'll get a tour tomorrow," he said. "Right now, I feel like I just need some time to myself. Is there any place I can sleep?" Riley beckoned for him to follow her towards the cabins. She led him to the shabbiest looking cabin of the bunch, the brown paint peeling off the walls, one flake of paint at a time. A symbol like a stick with two snakes twirling around it and a set of wings was set just above the door. They entered the cabin, and despite the climbing wall of death that was just a five minute walk away, this place looked completely and totally normal. Apart from the occasional misplaced weapon.

For a start, it looked like there was a slight space problem. Bunk beds were crammed all around the edges of the room. There was more bed than there was actual wall, and Zach was actually confused that they could fit it all inside. The floor had been taken up by a sea of clothes, and other odds and ends that had no natural place in the cabin.

"This is the Hermes Cabin," she said. "Since Hermes is the god of travellers, his cabin is used for all newcomers who haven't been claimed yet. It's also used for any half-bloods for minor gods that don't yet have cabins, so it's a little bit cramped. Make yourself at home." She closed the door behind her as she left, leaving him in the cabin alone. Zach looked around for a bunk that didn't have clothes all over it, and was thankful when he found a clean bottom bunk somewhere. The top was occupied by somebody who clearly felt no shame in their Rainbow Dash edition _My Little Pony_ bed sheets. There weren't exactly any other free beds, so he collapsed onto it, his backpack slipping off his shoulder. It was still early in the morning, but his mind was whirring inside his head at a thousand miles an hour, and he didn't think that he could function very well to do just about anything. He pulled out his journal and flicked through his pages. There were detailed sketches of all the creatures he'd encountered, including information about them like their habitats and, most important of all, how to kill them. Then he flicked through the other pages. All of the entries that he'd made all about where he was and what was happening. There were still a lot of empty pages, but that was expected. He hadn't been making many pages. Just since his mother went missing. He pulled out a pen, and was tempted to start writing, but he couldn't quite muster the strength to move his hand, and he could feel his eyelids drooping. It wasn't much longer before he collapsed, his world going blank as he passed out on the bed.


	3. I SIP FROM THE CHALICE OF INFINITE SPARK

**A little AN: The way these chapters work, some of them will be in 1st person instead of 3rd person depending on the situation. So for example, Zach writes down his thoughts in a journal, so when it's in his perspective the chapter will include "Zachariah's journal" but if it's in Riley's PoV then it will include "Riley's thoughts". So now, here is the chapter. Thanks to those who have read already and stuff, enjoy!**

 **CHAPTER 3: I SIP FROM THE CHALICE OF INFINITE SPARKLES (Zachariah's journal)**

If I thought I'd seen it all before, I was definitely wrong. Mom always said that no matter how old you get, you've never seen even _half_ of what's out there, and that I wouldn't get it until I started to get older. Older up there, in my head, and not just in my legs. She also told me to eat my vegetables and grow taller. At least I was growing taller.

But still, a camp for pagan gods? No, the _kids_ of pagan gods. I didn't even know pagan gods _had_ kids! Well, I guess it makes sense. In most of their myths, it was pretty much normal for them to have like a dozen human children running around, but shouldn't we have noticed them by now if they've been around the whole time? Wouldn't other hunters have made them extinct maybe? I guess because they aren't really killing people or destroying anything. Hell, these guys are almost _human_! But I would never have guessed it before I woke up today. For the second time.

So, I was pretty much out cold, it was too much of a shock to digest it in one go, when I felt myself get shoved out of my sleep as quickly as I went in it. Whatever happened, I felt my head hit something flat, and really hard, and for some reason there was no pillow to cushion the landing. I tried to shake the sleep out of my eyes and get my bearings when a really loud voice snapped me out of it.

"Come _on_! Get up already! Get up, get up, get up!" I slapped my face back to attention as I realised I was lying on the floor, and looked up. Standing more or less over me was a tall, Asian girl with black hair that came to rest just below her ears, with a far too bright rainbow coloured highlight running through it. She had one of those almost elfish faces that would have instantly gotten her on every teacher's bad books at school, with a sly grin, upturned eyebrows and a glint in her eyes that screamed trouble. She was wearing one of those orange t-shirts I'd gotten used to by now that said CAMP HALF-BLOOD, and a simple pair of jeans. "You're the new guy, right? Riley told me all about you already, and since you haven't had your tour yet, _I've_ decided to give it! Now come on!" I groaned as I tried to get up, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes. As soon as I opened them again, she was gone.

"Come on!" she whined, somehow already outside the cabin door. By the time I'd made it outside, she'd made her way to the other side of the encampment, tapping her foot impatiently (or something similar, it didn't look easy while standing on rollerblades. Did I forget to mention that? Well, she was moving around on rollerblades.) I blinked, and she was right in front of my face, snatching the breath right out of my throat. "Geez, could you move _any_ slower? Why do I always stick myself with the lame guys? The way Riley described you, I thought you'd be shooting laser beams out of your eyes or something."

"…. What?" The way she said that made me get the feeling that Riley was telling everybody I was a ten foot, demon summoning nuclear powered robot or something like that. And this girl believed it.

"We've got a lot to cover, so shuffle those feet!" This time, I made sure to keep my eyes open, and just like before she vanished into thin-air, appearing thirty feet away. Yeah, she gave me a tour of the place, but all of it was, like, at light-speed. We started at the stables, but there actually weren't that many horses in it. Or at least, not without wings. It was going to take a while before I could look at the pegasi without my goggles on. She was a whirlwind, talking incessantly and moving from place to place in a gust of wind. One second she was at the stable door, next, she was showing me the shed where they kept all the food, then an instant later, the strawberry fields. The only time I actually _saw_ her moving was when she slowly drifted towards one of the pegasi, a big black one with a sign saying 'Blackjack' by it. Then, she was another hundred metres away, leaving me to run to catch up to her.

She showed me a weird looking race track with stone bleachers, but it clearly hadn't been used in a long time, with weeds popping up out of the cobblestones and moss on the stone benches. Then she showed me the edge of the forest, and all in one breath, mentioned all the different varieties of monsters inside it, including a little story of when they hid a baby basilisk inside the showers of the Aphrodite cabin.

"You'd be surprised how dangerous a horde of teenagers armed with hairbrushes are when their hair products are in danger," she pointed out, shuddering at an unpleasant memory that was still too fresh in her mind. Then, she was gone again, a rainbow coloured dust devil at the other side of camp.

I saw the commons yard and mess hall just ahead, the big amphitheatre where they had camp singalongs and the campfire burned at night, the Big House where I'd arrived first, the great lake that held a bunch of smiling water spirits, swimming around like it was their own personal swimming pool (which it kind of was) and then we hit the armoury.

Do you know that feeling when its Christmas morning, and your eyes snap open with excitement as you remember, and you tear off the sheets, leap out like a hurricane, rush down the stairs at a hundred miles an hour, tear open the door to the living room and find a whole bunch of presents under the Christmas tree? Santa was here! And that means, presents! Remember that feeling? I don't, but I'm pretty sure that was what I felt like.

The armoury looked a lot more like a gardening shed than a weapon's storage, but instead of lawn mowers and clippers, there were longswords and daggers. Greek and Roman weapons were lined all around it, most of them made out of a glowing, almost mystical bronze.

" _This_ is where we store all our weapons," the girl said. "Courtesy of the Athena Cabin. As they say, 'match the right weapon to the right person'. Trust me when I say that you're gonna need one. Let's see…." She pulled up a sword the size of a small child and handed it to me. I couldn't even lift it, let alone hit someone with it.

"Anything more sleek maybe?" I asked. She nodded, glanced at the sword, and chucked it right at me. For all my pride and arrogance as a hunter, I have to admit, I screamed like a little girl. I ducked, but just a second too late. Luckily, she wasn't actually aiming it at me, the sword flying just over my head and embedding itself above the door. "What the hell was that?!"

"What? It's not like it hit you or anything." She smiled as she looked through more weapons while I tried to get my heart beating normally again. She pulled out a grey pump action shotgun, and her expression of sinister elation matched mine. Well, mine before I was almost decapitated.

"M-500 pump action shotgun," she said. "Perfect for those messy up-close and personal fights. Nothing gets up after a shot from this puppy! This one fires celestial bronze shells."

"No thanks," I said. "I've already got my own. Personally I stick with rock salt for all my ghost hunting needs, but any ammo you've got would be good." She placed it back with a bit more care on a rack filled with a whole arsenal of weapons. Some weird glowing bronze grenades, a mac-10 machine pistol, an M249 light machinegun the colour of midnight… And that was just the firearms! _Most_ of the weapons were swords, spears, daggers, shields, quivers of arrows, and even a huge battle axe. And here I thought _I_ had weapons.

"Aha!" she exclaimed, pulling out a golden double edged longsword. "Imperial Gold, that's _really_ rare even by camp standards. I wonder if Jason left this here? Anyway, this is pretty light for a longsword, and just about nothing can break it. It looks like it would suit you." I picked it up, and sure, it felt pretty good in my hands. Great. Now all that was left was learning how to _use_ a sword in the first place.

"I think I'm good," I said. "I prefer to keep my enemies out of arms reach."

"Well there's loads of bows and arrows that you can help yourself to, but I don't want to force you to pick anything. We can come back later and decide then." I nodded my head, and then felt a gust of wind nearly bowl me over. She had gone. Another breeze blew its way into the armoury and she was standing right in front of me as if she had never left.

"Oh man I totally forgot! I haven't even introduced myself yet! Sorry, I got kind of excited there huh? Anyway, my name's Reika Tachibana! Pleased to meet you!"

"Right, I'm Zachariah Kerouac," I said. "Though you probably know that by now, huh?" She gave me a big toothy grin, and then was gone. I exhaled, and followed her out the door.

There were a lot more campers moving around camp now than there were when I first arrived. I guess they were done with their capture the flag game or whatever. Some of them were looking at me real funny, but I couldn't really blame them. They just saw this random kid with an oversized trench coat and goggles, like he was trying too hard to force a steampunk detective look.

By the time our tour was finished, it was getting close to dinnertime. We made our way to the mess hall pavilion, and of course, when there's food involved, everybody becomes excited. There was a pretty long line, and not just filled with humans either. A bunch of the weird water spirits I saw in the lake were coming out as well, dressed in weird green shirts that kind of flowed like water. I think they were called naiads or something weird like that, but I wasn't really sure. I'd never really had a reason to hunt one. There were more nymphs coming out of the woods… like, _literally_ out of the woods, some of them kind of pulling themselves out of the trees themselves. It wasn't just them either, there were also these weird half man, half goat people running around too, with goat legs, hooves and horns. My Greek mythology wasn't good enough to remember what they were called, but I think they were fains or fauns or something.

As for the campers, there must have been over a hundred of them from all the different cabins. Of course, since I was the newbie, I was right at the very back of the line. Even the nine year olds were ahead of me. Fun. For a second it looked like Reika was going to wait in line with me, but then after about two seconds she got impatient and disappeared.

We marched up the hill towards the pavilion, and a feast was waiting for us. There were big ancient Greek styled columns, with torches burning around them. Right in the centre of the pavilion was a big basin sized brazier with a huge flame in the middle. There were loads of long wooden tables arranged around the fire, probably one or two per each cabin. I looked around, and spotted Riley at table five with a bunch of other big and scary looking demigods, all in leather jackets or camo. Seeing them all together like that, joking around, punching each other's shoulders, I could see the family resemblance. Most of them had blonde hair and really wild, intense eyes. They were pretty much all big and burly, and most of them had faces like bulls or bulldogs. It was like the world's greatest gathering of playground bullies. By comparison, Riley who seemed intense and athletic the first time they'd met, now looked like everybody's little sister, too awkward in her own body, not big or scary enough. She looked like me.

I was a little intimidated, but I walked towards her table to sit down, but without even turning to look at me, she held up her hand.

"Wrong table. You have to sit with your own cabin."

"So the Hermes cabin?"

"Yup. Now scram." Frankly, I was a little glad. They were all looking at me like I was their prey, Riley included. I looked around for cabin eleven and found Reika already seated at it with her siblings. I joined them, trying to slide obscurely next to them. Chiron was sort of standing by table twelve, Mr. D seated by his side with a rather bored expression on his face. A slightly more alert, slightly less plump young version of him was also at the table. I was guessing that was his kid or something. Chiron slammed his hoof on the marble floor, silencing all of the numerous chattering voices. Wait… his hoof? I had to really stop and think about that one. A hoof? Just a few hours ago, this guy was in a wheelchair. Now everything below his waist was a white stallion. A centaur.

"Yup. Gonna be a while before I don't need my goggles," I said to myself. Chiron raised a glass above his head.

"To the gods!"

"To the gods!" everybody roared back at him, raising their own glasses. And then the pavilion was a whirlwind of activity. Wood nymphs and fauns (no, _satyrs_ , that was it!) came forward with large plates of food, more food than I think I'd seen in the last two months. Grapes, apples, strawberries, cheese, some bread that looked too fancy to just be bread, and the part that I'd been waiting for: the great barbecued steak. My mouth watered just looking at it all. I was just wondering what drinks there would be when Reika tapped my cup.

"Ask for anything, as long as it's under eighteen," she said. I looked at the cup suspiciously.

"Hot cocoa." It filled itself to the brim with hot chocolate. I still glared at my magic cup with suspicion. I was tempted to ask for something ridiculous like if it could be filled with sparkles, but something told me liquid sparkles weren't good for my digestive system. I tentatively took a sip, feeling my face stretch into an unwilling smile as the warmth filled my insides. It tasted of home. "Hot cocoa with marhsmallows." Two marshmallows plopped themselves into my drink, slowly melting across the surface. I could barely believe my eyes. It still tasted fine too. "To hell with the digestive! Sparkling hot cocoa!" It didn't quite come out the way I thought. I guess the cup got offended that I thought it could make sparkling hot chocolate, but the marshmallows changed to melt in a star shape, and the outside of the cup was covered in glitter. I admit: I was impressed. A camper slid a platter across the table to my end and I shovelled the best selection into my own plate. I took a massive bite out of a chicken drumstick when Reika slapped me on the back of the head. Less than twenty four hours, and I nearly choked to death on my dinner.

"What was that for?" She tilted her head towards the big fire in the middle. Campers were getting up and taking their food to the fire, dropping portions of their food into it. All the best parts even.

"Um… okay, why?"

"Burnt offerings to the gods. You offer a portion of the best food."

"And what happens if I-"

"Don't even think about it. Remember King Minos?" She sounded deadly serious, so I took her warning to heart and got up. I wasn't really sure how an offering of burnt carrots would get up to Heaven or Olympus or whatever, but I went anyway. Reika chucked the biggest steak into the fire. "Hermes." She turned back, but that hadn't made anything clearer for me. If they were offering food to their godly parents, who was _I_ meant to give it to? I just kind of slid them in quietly so I wouldn't stand out and turned on my heel. The smells that came back from it didn't make me feel nauseous. Instead there was the smell of hot chocolate and marshmallows, chocolate chip cookies, pizzas fresh out of the oven, crumpled up old parchments and worn leather, my mom's coffee in the morning… it didn't make any sense, but even when mixed together, it wasn't too bad. I guess that's why the gods liked it so much.

By the time I'd finished eating, I felt like I'd tripled my weight. I couldn't even move without my stomach making some kind of protest, when Chiron slammed his hoofs again to get our attention.

Mr. D and Chiron made regular camp announcements if you ignored the message of warning for the Hermes cabin to _not_ sabotage the Apollo cabin's chariots whilst they were using them (although Reika commented to me that it didn't say they couldn't sabotage _other_ cabins' stuff, or sabotage whilst they _weren't_ in use.) Finally, they turned their attention to me.

"You might have noticed by now, but it looks like we've got a new camper," Mr. D said. "Say hi to Ezekiel Crackerjack over there." Chiron whispered something quickly to him. "Say hi to Zachariah Kerouac," he continued, as if he hadn't just gotten my name wrong. I hated being introduced as the new guy, and I hoped I wouldn't be expected to introduce myself, like _hi, my name's Zachariah. My hobbies including poetry, studying cursed texts, and planning ways to use the forces of darkness!_ Luckily, he forgot about me even quicker than the other campers, and dismissed us to the amphitheatre, where the campfire was already lit, waiting for us.

The Apollo cabin took to leading all the camp songs, loads of them about Greek heroes and gods and your nickers getting eaten by a hydra. Even while we were munching down on s'mores and roasting marshmallows, I couldn't quite loosen up like the others.

Riley eventually found me, staring into the roaring golden inferno. She sat down next to me, staring at me with concern.

"If you keep frowning, your face will get stuck like that," she said "Loosen up a little!"

"I'm trying, but this is all way too much to take in at once," I said. "Everything's so weird, it's not like outside…."

"You know what will make you feel better? Some marshmallows! Have a… hey, is that the packet?"

"Maybe."

"It's empty. Zach, how many did you have?"

"… All of them…."

"By yourself?"

"You got any more marshmallows? I've got a weird craving for them…." Riley shook her head.

"Remind me never to tell you where those are stored!" She got up, about to head back to the others. "Hey, Camp Half-Blood can be pretty freaky at first, but you start to get used to it after a while. When you get claimed, it will be even better, you'll get sorted into the proper cabin and everything." I seriously doubted that I was some demigod or whatever, although it would explain why Mom never wanted to talk about dad. But I nodded my head anyway. Still, it kinda sucks that she doesn't know the _real_ reason I felt uneasy. It's not that I'm not used to Camp Half-Blood (although that was gonna take a while.) It's something else. I'm not used to having _fun_.


	4. WE PLAN A TRIP TO DREAMLAND

**I figured I wanted to post this today because Fridays man… I always get a little bit jumpy on Fridays… weird like that… anyway, here ya go!**

 **CHAPTER 4: WE PLAN A TRIP TO DREAMLAND**

It had been a week, and Riley was starting to get worried that Zach was right. She was pulling herself up the climbing wall with ease, leaping across it like a monkey. At this point, the movements were almost robotic, and she could let her thoughts wander wherever she wanted (as long as she accepted that her clothes would be slightly charred). And right now, as irritating as it was, they'd fixed themselves on Zach. He was definitely not normal, that much she was sure of. Everything in Camp Half-Blood that should have completely freaked him out, just kind of surprised him. And even though he said he needed those weird glasses to see through the mist, he'd almost completely stopped wearing them now. She still needed to ask him about that.

But, even though he wasn't normal, he didn't exactly seem godly either. He hadn't shown any special powers yet, and he couldn't summon monsters without that weird Gameboy looking thing. Last time she asked him to try, he asked for 'the blood of a maiden pure of heart and unsullied of flesh'. She'd learnt to stop asking him weird questions.

He was horrible with a sword, his reflexes were pathetic, he was bad at Ancient Greek but could speak Latin, and the lava on the climbing wall completely repelled him from it. As Riley pulled herself to the top of the climbing wall to the cheers of her fellow campers, she couldn't help but wonder just who exactly he was if he wasn't a demigod. She clambered down to the bottom, swelling up with pride as she hadn't even gotten her shoes singed this time, then found Ash over by a tree, staring blankly into space.

Ash was always a bit of a mystery to her. Most people from the Apollo cabin were really charismatic and expressive. There was always their own personal party hovering around them. But Ash was… well, the only way to put it was _weird_. She liked to be by herself and just stare at things, and sometimes people, for uncomfortable periods of time. Sometimes she would have a notebook or a sketchpad and she would scribble things into it (how she could draw or write with her eyes closed was a mystery) but Riley had never actually seen what was in it. With all the weird stuff she said all the time, Riley wasn't actually sure if she wanted to see it.

"Can I help you?" Ash asked, before Riley had even said anything. "Your aura has been especially wild these last few days."

"What do you mean _especially_ wild? Anyway, that's not what I'm here for. I just wanted to talk, that's all. You're always on your own, it's kind of hard to tell what you're thinking sometimes."

"I'm not exactly a people person. I just observe the infinite universe around me, occasionally commenting on it, and adding what little I can to the world."

" _Or_ you're trying too hard to sound enlightened and you secretly just don't like people." For just a moment, Riley thought she saw her lip start to curl into a smile, but it disappeared almost instantly.

"I can't comment on that," she replied. "What I'm curious about is what's disturbing you, and I'm guessing it has to do with Zachariah." Riley shifted uncomfortably on her feet. Ash had this way of staring at people through her shut eyelids that made it feel like she was staring into your soul.

"I dunno… it's like, I'm getting a little worried about the guy."

"He's survived so far."

"Yeah, I know, but, it's been over a week and he's still unclaimed. It's really weird for a half-blood to go so long without being claimed, especially if they're over thirteen. I'm just wondering that maybe he _isn't_ a demigod?"

"He can see more than most children of men."

"Sometimes, mortals can see through the mist. Just think of Rachel Elizabeth Dare."

"You said he was strong enough to fight a monster, maybe even on his own."

"Yeah, but he's still not _that_ strong, and he uses a gun! Have you ever heard of a half-blood using a gun?"

"Still, we don't know who his father is, and apparently, neither does he."

"Loads of people have missing fathers, it happens. Look, I'm not saying that he's not special in some way, but I'm not really sure whether he's a demigod or not. He just seems too…."

"Ordinary? Well, he did keep saying that he's human. If you're really not sure, why don't you ask him yourself? And I mean, ask him _everything_ , no jumping to conclusions. Who he is, what he does, why he can see through the mist… you might just learn something." Riley wasn't looking forward to the interrogation, but she nodded her head in approval anyway.

"I'll try do that. I'm just getting a bad feeling about all of this, like he doesn't really belong… although, that makes sense if he's a mortal…." Riley set off towards her next activity, hastily remembering to thank Ash before she left. Even after giving her the reassurance though, Ash couldn't help but wonder whether there was something wrong with him too. Something about him that felt like demons….

* * *

Zachariah had had just about enough of sword practice. And now he was getting pounded by a guy who didn't even have a sword. Great.

He thrust and stabbed with the practice short sword he was using, but to no avail. Every swing he made was blocked and parried, frequently sending him off balance and tottering off as he tried to steady himself. He spun on his heel and made a savage swing at his opponent, but the blow did nothing, the blade bouncing off his enemy's shield. He shoved Zach back violently, slamming the shield into his face. Zach knew that if his enemy had a sword as well, he would have died in the next second, but as it stood his battlefield dance partner was just equipped with the shield. That was it. Zach was pretty sure if exhaustion didn't kill him, then getting the embarrassment of losing to a virtually unarmed guy would. He could feel the strength leaving his limbs, and he knew that the fight was over, so hey? Why not give it all or nothing? He put all his power behind the swing, slamming the sword down on his opponents head. He didn't even try to block it, sidestepping easily and slamming it into Zach's face again. Zach collapsed, spots swimming before his eyes, and it took him a few moments to realise that the edge of the shield was pressed against his neck.

"Dude, you suck," his opponent said.

"Shut up…." He helped him up onto his unsteady feet. To be honest, it wasn't even a fair fight. Sure, Zach was armed with a nice sword that gave him the clear reach advantage, but the guy he was facing was like twice his height with a mess of black hair and a long thin scar going across the bridge of his nose. His arms were also scarred, and he clearly didn't care seeing as he was wearing a Camp Half-Blood tank top and (as odd as it seemed) designer jeans. He was like a buffed out James Dean that got into a knife fight. And he was in the Aphrodite cabin. Zach wouldn't have believed it if he hadn't said so himself. Something told him they _both_ didn't believe it.

"I want to give you some kind of advice, but I'm not even sure where to start…."

"I'll get better, I just need some practice, that's all!"

"I mean, your form sucks, your grip's like a little girl, you're leaving yourself open…."

"Wait, I thought you said you didn't know where to start?"

"All your movements are unnecessary, you're just plain _weak_ , it's actually kind of embarrassing…."

"Okay, I get it!" Zach quickly stopped him before he could crush his spirits anymore. It was around then when he noticed a girl, around her early twenties, with frizzy red hair and freckles, approaching him from the opposite side of the arena. There was paint splattered across her orange Camp Half-Blood shirt, and for some reason he could imagine a smiling five year old version of her with a big gap in her teeth for a missing tooth. He could only hope that she hadn't just seen him get totally floored.

"So, how's practice going?" she asked. "Getting the hang of it yet?"

"None of the swords feel right and fighting Adam is like spraying a brick wall with a water pistol. So, yeah, I think I'm getting used to it by now."

"C'mon dude, you'll get there, don't worry about it." He shrugged his shoulders indifferently.

"Maybe you're just not cut out for the sword?" she suggested.

"Well, I keep a pistol under my pillow at night so that's a possibility."

"What?"

"Nothing – hey, maybe I'd be better off with a bow?"

"You nearly shot yourself in the foot," Adam interjected. "I don't think it's a good idea to let you anywhere _near_ a quiver." He looked down at his toes in embarrassment.

"Yeah, maybe I'm _not_ cut out for this stuff huh?"

"Oh suck it up," the girl said. "You get knocked out enough times and eventually you learn to dodge. Oh yeah, I don't think I introduced myself yet!" She flashed him a big toothy, and not at all toothless grin. "My name's Rachel Elizabeth Dare. I'm the camp oracle."

"An oracle? What, like a prophet or something? Well, my name's-"

"Zach, right? I already know a bit about you. You're the guy that Riley picked up. And you _still_ haven't been assigned a cabin yet, have you? Are you sure you're a demigod? You can see through the mist, but you're not like me either, so that's not it, and you at least have _some_ power, so who are you?"

"I'm exactly who I've been saying I am. I'm a demon hunter. Period." She shrugged her shoulders as if she wasn't convinced.

"I'll find out one day. But until then, make yourself-" she abruptly cut herself off, clutching her head in agony as she collapsed to one knee, her whole body trembling. With at least some idea of concern, Zach and Adam began approaching her, but she held up her hand, stopping them in their tracks. "Ah great, just when I…."

"Hey, what's happening?" Zach asked.

"She's probably getting a prophecy," Adam said. "But that's pretty weird, they're not normally this random." Adam didn't look too concerned, as if this had happened before, but instead gently led her to a seat by the side of the amphitheatre. "Don't forget a word she says, just in case." Zach nodded his head, striving to commit the next few minutes to memory, but it was kind of hard to do when she stood straight up, her spine stiff as an ironing board, and started speaking like she'd swallowed three people's voice boxes.

" _Beneath the earth, beyond light skies_

 _The grasp of graves do yield to cries_

 _The tools of death and Ragnarok_

 _And burned Megiddo's lightning shock_

 _They sing, but wait, beware the hands_

 _That hold these tools, imposing trance_

 _For steel and quill may win the fight_

 _But traitor's fall to dawning light"_

As soon as she was done speaking, her whole body went limp, crumpling in on itself.

"Hey, take it easy," Adam said, fanning her exhausted looking face.

"Um, what was that?" Zach asked, trying his best not to let the tremble in his voice show.

" _That_ was a prophecy," he said. "They happen from time to time, and normally quests come after, but this one was something else."

"That's not good is it?" Adam looked him seriously in the eyes, and for some reason he looked a lot scarier than he did when he was trying to decapitate him with a shield.

"We have to go and see Chiron."

* * *

It took them about two seconds to get kicked out of the big house once they brought the prophecy to them. Rachel Elizabeth Dare stayed inside with Chiron to discuss the prophecy while Zach and Adam sat by the front porch, trying to think of something other than the apocalyptic message they'd just received. Zach was content to just look like he was in deep thought to avoid having to say anything when he noticed Adam clutching a tiny pink stuffed animal in his hands. It was small enough to fit in his palm like a key holder, but there was no way he could take the pink bunny ears poking out the top of its head seriously.

"Um, Adam?"

"Yo."

"Where'd you get that… the teddy? Where'd you get the teddy?"

"This?" He held it up, shaking it by its ears so it danced like a puppet with tangled strings. "I didn't _get_ it anywhere. I made it."

"Really?" Maybe he had sounded just a bit too surprised there because Adam glared at him.

"Yeah… what're you trying to say? You don't believe I could make something like this? Huh?!"

"No! No, nothing like that!"

"So what do you _think_ I do in my free time, eh? Fix car engines or something?" Zach wasn't sure why he was getting so worked up, but Adam was now standing up, and he _really_ didn't need the guy to remind him how much bigger he was than Zach. Just when he thought things were going to get violent, Chiron and Dionysus emerged from the Big House. Chiron eyed Zach somewhat apprehensively.

"We need to talk." From the wary look Chiron was giving him, he felt somewhat compelled to follow him into the Big House. He took a seat by a table opposite Dionysus. Rachel Elizabeth Dare was stood by the stairs, looking much healthier than she did when they met in the amphitheatre, and Chiron had fitted his equestrian lower half into his weird magical wheelchair.

"I'm assuming you already know about the prophecy," Chiron said.

"I do now," Zach replied, not sure what kind of tone to take with them. The tension in the air was obvious: they could probably cut through it with a butter knife if they wanted to. All of Zach's hunter's instincts were kicking in at once. His left hand was resting gently on his jean pocket where the summoning tool was, and his eyes were scanning the room for anything he could use as a weapon if the going got tough.

"This makes things easier. There's a particular problem with this prophecy, and it may have something to do with you. Oracles are always important figures in myths. They can see more than most people do, possess powers that even some gods lack. They can see into the future and hear the words of the fates. Here at Camp Half-Blood, the spirit of the oracle of old, Delphi, finds a clear sighted mortal host, and picks them to be the next oracle. That mortal receives visions from the gods through that spirit."

"Okay, so they're not prophets, more like mediums of sorts, right? I can dig that."

"And that's where the problem is," Rachel said. "This prophecy was different. I didn't receive this prophecy from Delphi, or not through the usual route."

"So what, another number is calling you instead?"

"Yeah, pretty much. My prophecies come from Apollo himself, but that's not where this one came from."

"So somebody intercepted your visions. It's a fake. Just ignore it then, it doesn't concern you guys then, right?"

"You can't just _intercept_ a vision, not to _the_ oracle at least. I would have noticed. Imagine that you're daydreaming, right? Even when you're daydreaming, you're not going to confuse it for reality. They're two different things. If somebody just planted a memory or some words in my head, Delphi's spirit would have rejected it. Since it didn't, that means it's real." Zach still wasn't sure about what the general idea was, but the antagonism in the air was enough to push him away from the table.

"Hold on, then what's the problem? You just have to do what you normally do. Announce it at camp, pick out a few heroes and send them on their way. What do I have to do with this? I don't even have a godly parent as far as I can tell!"

"This whole situation might just revolve around you," Chiron spoke up. " _Beneath the earth, beyond light skies/ The grasp of graves do yield to cries_. This probably refers to the underworld being open, letting creatures and spirits be pulled out at will, but we haven't heard of anything like that happening since The Prophecy of Seven. That is, until we saw your device." Zach held up his summoning tool questioningly. "It can summon monsters, demons and the likes, correct? Many such creatures only exist in the depths of Tartarus. There are always devil summoners like yourself who can give rise to them and command them at will, but they always go through extensive rituals to do it, and their activity is normally noticed, if not by the ones who rule there, then by me. _You_ , however… you're different. Your summoning program goes completely under the radar."

"That's why you said that it was impossible," Zach said. "You can… you can _feel_ demons being pulled from the underworld?" Chiron brushed the comment aside as if it was normal.

" _The tools of death and Ragnarok_. This is where the problem gets even worse. Our oracle normally only tells prophecies relating to Greek or Roman myth."

"But Ragnarok is the final battle from Norse myth."

"While Megiddo is a town from Biblical times, and has been destroyed and had the blood of kings spilled on it. Frequently. You're starting to get how bad this is, right?" Zach flashed him a nervous smile.

"Maybe just a little. Can I go home now?"

"Prophecies don't lie, and this one is no exception. The only problem is that we've never encountered one like this before. This is cross cultural, with wording we don't see a lot, and it just so happens to arrive a week after you show up, and refer to a weapon that only you can use. This is dangerous, and we can barely make any sense out of it." Zach was really getting edgy now, and kept wishing he was allowed to carry his guns with him everywhere. Rachel Elizabeth Dare had to have noticed seeing as _she_ was the calmest person in the room, and was about to place a reassuring hand on Zach's shoulder, then thought twice about it after seeing the overwhelmed look in his eyes.

"Take it easy, nobody's getting hurt," she said. "We just need to clarify a few things."

"Like what?"

"Like who you are for a start. And everything you know about that demon summoning tool."

* * *

It might as well have been any other campfire session when Chiron stepped forward, marshmallow impaled spear in hand and their resident oracle close in tow. Riley was still in mid-conversation with Ash as everybody went quiet.

"I hope that you're all comfortable and enjoying the moment. We've all got to be thankful for the peace and blessings that we have, especially considering all of the battles that we've experienced, and still have to experience. So while we've got good food and fine company, we enjoy it!" There was a cheer of agreement spreading across the campers, a few people from the Apollo cabin clashing their marshmallow sticks together in a toast. "Of course, nothing lasts forever, and it's the same with peace. Sooner or later, trouble's going to get stirred up, or stir itself up." Riley could feel a bubbling pit of nervous energy welling up inside her, like somebody had caught a swarm of butterflies and attached them to feather dusters in her gut. Not the most pleasant feeling, but she couldn't resist it. She was trying not to get her hopes up, but she couldn't help it. It was the same pattern that she'd heard from the old campers like Annabeth. It could only be one thing….

"It's finally time," Rachel said. "It's time for the next prophecy." The chaos was evident, with a whole range of reactions. A lot of the younger campers all began whispering excitedly to each other, or even breaking into cheers, but even with all of her excitement, Riley couldn't help but notice the stony expressions on most of the older campers, like this was something they had been afraid of for a long time. Rachel looked at Chiron for reassurance, but he simply nodded his head. "Okay guys, I'll read out the prophecy." With each word that she said, Riley was starting to understand the scared expressions on the others' faces, but that didn't cut down on her mood in the slightest. It was just working her up more and more. This was what Ash liked to call "the blood of Ares" boiling through her veins, but Riley couldn't care less. This was a mission, this was a call to arms. This was… this was….

"What exactly does that _mean_?" Adam asked from amongst the Aphrodite cabin. He was one of the few people who looked like he was actually paying attention out of them.

"I've got an idea," Zach spoke up. Riley hadn't even noticed him until he stood up. " _The tools of death and Ragnarok, and burned Megiddo's lightning shock_. These are weapons, and some pretty nasty ones at that. We're talking end times nasty. Somebody's trafficking some heavy duty paranormal tools around the country, probably around the world. And it's started with this." He held up his summoning device. After first arriving and half scaring them all to death, Zach made it a point not to use his powers, but here in plain sight he opened up the device. "Telekhine, Nekomata." Two flashes of light sparked up by his side, Nekomata sound asleep while the Telekhine smiled at everybody in front of him. Some people screamed. Others jumped to their feet in alarm. Some of them even drew weapons, though where from was a mystery that they clearly weren't sharing any time soon. Before a single arrow had been loosed, Reika was standing in front of them, arms outstretched.

"Wait, they won't hurt us, these ones are friendly!" she screamed. She looked back over her shoulder in concern and said something Riley didn't quite catch, but she was guessing she didn't really believe herself either.

"Relax, they won't hurt you," Zach assured them.

"Yeah, it's too early for that anyway," Nekomata said as she briefly awoke, licking the back of her hand, paw, whatever it was and stroking her hair with it. "Now if you'll excuse me, I'm taking a cat nap." She went back to sleep before Zach called them both back with a sigh.

"This weapon, the Megiddo Circuit, lets me summon and control monsters at will," he said. "It got left behind by my Mom before she disappeared. She's mortal, but she hunts monsters. She's been doing this since before I was even born, and while I was growing up she kept on going. And then she disappeared." He paused for a moment, as if he was trying to get his breath back, but everybody was still edgy after the monsters, and not a lot of them were really paying attention anymore. "Before she left, she gave me this, the Megiddo circuit. It lets me summon monsters and control them, without having to go through complex rituals. This thing shouldn't even exist, let alone be useable for a human. But here it is. And here I am, summoning monsters, the only person who can use it. That prophecy is talking about my weapon."

Riley was certain that he wasn't winning any popularity contests. She couldn't even make out what anybody was saying above the din, but they were probably along the lines of exile and execution. Even Chiron was struggling to get things under control. Zach looked genuinely surprised at everybody's hostility.

"What? Is it something I said?"

"You're scaring them you moron," Reika said, just loud enough for Riley to hear. Chiron finally got everybody to listen again, but the fire was flashing between green and purple. Not friendly looking colours.

"What he means, is that his use of it is a signal of the prophecy," Chiron said. "It's still too early to tell exactly what's going to happen, but we do know the line about opening up worlds relates to the Megiddo circuit, and we can only take a guess at the next few weapons. Laevateinn, when talking about Ragnarok, and the Master Bolt, to do with Megiddo's lightning shock. Laevateinn is the sword of Surt, the Norse ruler of Muspelheim, and obviously, the Master Bolt is Zeus's personal symbol of power."

"Hold on a second, that doesn't sound right," someone called out behind Riley. She turned around to see a big bulky looking girl in camouflage pants and a skull t-shirt towering over her. Clarisse, the head of the Ares cabin, was glaring at Chiron as if she wanted to start a fight. Then again, she always wanted to start a fight. Everybody in the Ares cabin wanted a fight. "Did you say _Surt_? A _Norse_ god?"

"Yes, that's right."

"And that prophecy says _Ragnarok_. This is like, stuff to do with Vikings. In case you haven't noticed, we're all Greek demigods. _Greek_. This isn't our specialty."

"That's true, it's not. But it's his." Zach waved at them, still self-conscious of how little trust everybody had of him, then pulled out a dusty looking journal from his back pocket. "She didn't just leave me with the Megiddo circuit, she also left behind her journal, full of everything she'd been hunting for the last few months. It's also got parts of that prophecy inside it. And details of what some of it means. In this case, it's to do with those weapons. They've gone missing." Like it was contrasting with the uproar just a moment ago, there was deadly silence, the flames turning navy blue. "Well, not the Master Bolt. Laevateinn. And it seems there was a lot that it missed out too. Huge numbers of powerful weapons, armour, and amulets from all over the world have disappeared, and they're being trafficked in huge numbers. We're not just talking the normal illegal dealings done by hunters… done by _heroes_ , we're talking major arms deals, Cold War level stuff, but not with nukes, with _magic_. And if we don't do anything, the Master Bolt is next."

"Okay, that's pretty bad," Clarisse said. "So what are we meant to do?"

"Something that doesn't happen a lot," Chiron said. "Stopping the problem before it even starts. We need to observe the weapons deals for ourselves. If so many weapons and items are being transferred, then somebody is preparing them for something. We can't let that go unchecked." A large, slightly disturbing smile stretched across Clarisse's face, and Riley was pretty sure the same one was spreading across the whole Ares cabin, herself included.

"So it's a quest! It's been a while! It's finally time to win glory for Camp Half-Blood!" An infectious cheer spread across the camp, and it took a while before it finally died down to a reasonable level.

"Who goes all depends on the prophecy," Chiron said. "By default, Zachariah has to go. As hard as it is to admit it, he probably knows the most about quests like these thanks to his background. The other two though…."

"I'm picking my partners," Zach said. "I'm not sure how many of you want to tag team with me anyway-"

"I volunteer Riley," Clarisse blurted out. She nearly fell out of her seat, staring up at her incredulously. The Ares cabin broke into activity, and it looked like people were going to start hurling fists, but there was no way anybody was going to challenge Clarisse. Riley stared up at her questioningly, but Clarisse only smiled, winking at her. "It's not like we need her here anyway. Besides, she could use the exercise, build up a bit of muscle on her bones." Sure enough, there was grumbling, but nobody openly disagreed. Zach just shrugged his shoulders, so she could only guess that he was fine with it, but nobody asked _her_ if she was fine. Which she was, but that wasn't the point."

"Hey wait a second, don't leave me out of this too!" Reika yelled. " _Quill may win the fight!_ What if it's talking about me? I'm from the Hermes cabin, god of messengers. Quills, pens, and emails are all used to send messages, so maybe it's me?" Chiron didn't look so sure about the reasoning, but Zach just shrugged his shoulders.

"No problem. Pack up your gear then, we're heading out tomorrow."

"Wait, what? Already?" Riley asked. "We _just_ found out about it. Where are we even going?"

"Highway 375, Nevada."

"Highway 375? Umm… you don't mean…." Zach turned his back to them, smiling as he looked back at her through the corner of his eye.

"That's right. We're going to Paradise Ranch, Area 51."


	5. WE PARTICIPATE IN A ROYAL RUMBLE

**And so the plot has been spurred into motion, with a cross country road trip, some ambrosia, and a bag of marshmallows. Let's get out your travel music:** _ **Carry on My Wayward Son!**_

 **CHAPTER 5: WE PARTICIPATE IN A ROYAL RUMBLE (Riley's thoughts)**

Nevada seemed like a bit of a stretch. Especially since we had to set off at three in the morning. I'm not sure why we had to be so early, and I was tempted to strangle Zach when he announced our starting time, but I was pretty excited about the quest anyway. I can forgive losing an hour or two of sleep if it meant getting a chance to go and hurt something. I managed to get myself up at least twenty minutes late, although I was trying not to wake up the others. If _I_ was irritated in the morning, there was no way I was chancing it with my siblings. My bigger, angrier, and much more violent siblings. By the time I had left, Reika and Zach were already waiting by the stables.

Zach had switched back to his oversized trench coat, and his goggles were dangling by his neck. Reika looked like she was hopped up on rocket fuel, talking animatedly as she rolled around on her rollerblades before abruptly stopping by a log, collapsing backwards onto it and yelling out "I'm booooooooorreed!" She probably noticed me around then because by the time I'd blinked, she'd completely disappeared, appearing right in front of my face. "Riley! You made it!" She crushed me (or feebly tried to) in a massive bear hug before I could even reply, then changed her mood like a flash of lighting. "What took you so long? Were you hibernating for the winter or something?!"

"Well geez, sorry, some of us aren't always bouncing off the walls with energy," I replied. Her weird super speed perk always made me dizzy when I was near her for too long. She disappeared again in a flash of neon highlights, reappearing next to Zach. He was carrying a brown duffle bag, and I could just barely make out the tip of a shotgun poking out the top of it.

"Is that whole bag filled wit…."

"Apart from the essentials, yes," Zach replied. "So, you're set?" I nodded my head. I had my camouflaged backpack, and that was all I needed, and Reika was similarly equipped. "Chiron gave me a hundred dollars, a few gold drachmas, and some ambrosia squares. I already spoke to Argus and he said he'd give us a lift. Shall we get going?" I nodded my head and we headed for the entrance at Half-Blood Hill. When we reached the top, Zach stopped and looked behind at the camp below him. "I can see it… well, looks like I've finally adjusted."

"You can see it? What, you mean Camp Half-Blood? Couldn't you always see it?" Zach shook his head, then tapped the side of his goggles.

"Not without these at first. I've gotten used to it now though." A big delivery van drove out to the front, Argus seated in the front seat. He looked normal. Tan with windswept blonde hair and blue eyes. Everywhere. Just your everyday hundred eyed camp security guard. He honked the horn, urging them to hurry. Reika had no trouble with that at all, calling shotgun before any of us could blink and suddenly appearing in the front seat next to Argus.

"No fair!" Zach cried. "Only the guy with the actual shotgun can ride shotgun. It's the rule!" She looked in his direction and pulled a funny face, tongue outstretched and bottom eyelid pulled.

"First come first serve!" So I was stuck in the back with the grumbling kid with a shotgun. We were stuck in the car for quite a while, Argus as silent as usual, the way he always was, and for some reason, Zach looked really awkward, avoiding eye contacting and shifting more in his seat than Reika. I decided I might as well try to break the ice a little.

"So, Zach, you're a demon hunter, right?"

"We normally leave the _demon_ part out, but yes. We hunt monsters and stuff. Demons are a different matter. Trust me when I say you _don't_ want to meet an actual demon."

"Right… but you're a mortal, right? And I'm guessing most hunters are mortals to."

"You're the first person I've met who's a demi-god, so yeah."

"But you can see through the mist. You can fight monsters. Not very well, but you can get by."

"Hey! Anyway, I can just barely see through the mist. The mist is like a veil, and it replaces what's actually there with something that you can understand better. Mortals will see anything but the truth if giving the chance, and I'm no exception. But there comes a point where you've got no choice _but_ to face reality. Hunters just know this. If I'm looking for a monster, I look for all the warning signs… the omens that signal its appearance. If I pick up enough of them, and convince myself there's nothing else it can be _but_ the paranormal, then I can see through it.

"So, if I meet some weird big guy that's kind of suspicious, I'll check if his footprints are larger than his feet, if he smells like century old beef jerky, if some of his belongings don't look right, any weird activity in the nearby area, all those things. If there's too many of them, then eventually I'll see him as a laestrygonian giant or whatever he is. Different omens for different stuff. Ghosts short circuit technology. Flickering lights, moving objects, ectoplasmic goo, that stuff, while most demons leave traces of sulphur and cause major omens like thunderstorms, cow mutilations, power surges, the usual."

"That sounds like a lot of work though… and it can't work on everything, can it?"

"Yeah, it's really hard, and needs me to do my research and pay close attention to stuff. That trick didn't help me much with Camp Half-Blood for example. That's why I've got these." He held his goggles up for me to see them better, though with the dim lighting it didn't help much. "They 'pierce the fog of the human unconscious, dispelling illusions and revealing the truth'. That's what it said on the box at least."

"Hey, can I see those?" He looked reluctant to give them to me, but he relented, gently placing them in my hands.

"Don't lose them. I'm virtually blind without them." They looked like a pretty regular pair of goggles. No curse tags, no fancy Greek symbols or Latin incantations scribbled into the strap, nothing. He was looking pretty edgy so I gave him his goggles back.

The rest of the journey was awkward. Reika had plugged in earphones and had retreated from us entirely, occasionally humming random off-tune snippets of whatever she was listening to, and Zach had started scribbling down something in his journal. How he could write in the car was beyond me, and with my dyslexia there was no way I was going to even attempt reading his disgusting looking cursive while in a moving vehicle on the highway.

The sun was high in the air by the time we arrived at the Greyhound Station in Manhattan. I remembered to thank Argus and he simply nodded, driving away in a puff of smoke and dust.

"So the plan is to take the bus to Las Vegas or something?" I asked.

"Until that fails at least, but yes," Zach replied. "We don't have the cash for a flight, so this is the easiest thing we can do."

"Why am I getting a weird sense of déjà vu with all of this? And why do I think that's a bad thing?"

"You're just getting pre-quest jitters, that's all!" Reika exclaimed, lifting her bags with gusto. "Once you're on the road, slaying monsters, running for your life, you'll be totally fine! Assuming you're still alive, that is."

"Let's not bring up our deaths just yet, shall we?" I laughed, hoping nobody picked up the nervousness in it. The bus arrived just then, screeching to a halt as its doors opened for the passengers.

"Wow, I know you guys said that Argus was reliable, but his timing was perfect," Zach said with surprise as Reika bounded right in, moving like a gust of wind. I followed her, but Zach was tugging at his coat, his eyes darting back and forth.

"Do you mind _not_ looking like a freaking criminal?" I asked. "It's bad enough you look like a young Sherlock Holmes without you glaring at everyone."

"Instinct. I'm just looking out for things that might kill me. Apart from you guys." I rolled my eyes as the bus started off, plopping down at the back next to Reika.

"And so our journey to Paradise Ranch begins… this is totally normal…."

"Do you think there's any aliens there?" Reika asked excitedly.

"Aliens? Why aliens?"

"I mean, come on. We're heading to _Area 51_!" She whispered that last part like it was the most exciting thing in the world, and yet somehow managed to do it loud enough to alert half the bus. "Aren't you at least a little excited for all the stuff we might find?"

"Aren't you at least a _little_ aware of how loud you are? We don't know when we're going to be attacked next, and you're making noise here… And besides, I don't think we're going _inside_ the place. The way Zach put it, we're just heading somewhere nearby. And I'm not sure about this whole aliens angle you've got going on. I know what they say about the place, but isn't that a little weird?"

"Oh come on, I'm the daughter of Hermes and you're Ares' little girl. If weird was a football team, then we'd be the mascots. If gods and goddesses are real, then what's to say that aliens aren't?"

"I don't know, they could be, but why would they visit earth anyway if they're so advanced? We can't even figure out how to get to Las Vegas, let alone off our own planet."

"Well if you knew there was a planet that had gods and goddesses on it, then wouldn't _you_ try and visit? There's tons of UFO sighting every year, and more since, all over America! And lots of old civilisations show visits with astronauts and people in space suits, or with rockets landing here and leaving. Just think of the Mayans, and the Aztecs! Who built the pyramids?"

"I dunno, _people_? Really smart people?"

"Not good enough! There's no _way_ they could have done that unless a god helped them, and we know how rare that is! They'd have more chance of getting alien help than the gods giving them a hand!"

"You're sounding nuttier with every word you say, Reika." An old man in a bowler cap and grey jacket in front of us turned around, his elbow leaning on the back of his chair.

"You're interested in aliens?" The man asked me. He had one of those smiles that reminded you of everybody's grandpa or a reliable uncle. But the smell of cigarettes was strong on this old man.

"Uh, yeah, I guess you could say that. My friend here especially." The man's smile grew warmer as his big black eyes switched from me to Reika.

"Oh really? My wife is into that kind of thing too. Not me though. I think it's a load of rubbish."

"Really?" Reika asked. "But your wife thinks it's cool though. I guess you can't always agree, huh?"

"Trust me, it's a blessing if we actually _can_ agree. But who cares about aliens anyway? There's much more 'cool' stuff out there you know." He pulled out a cigarette, placing it between his lips before blowing out a single smoke ring. Something about this guy was creeping me out. He seemed like some kind of stalker looking for a bit more than directions to the bathroom. For some reason, Zach didn't seem to have noticed. Not like I needed him anyway, it just annoyed me that he could be so calm during all of this. "There's _real_ monsters out there. Creatures and creepy crawlies, gods and demons, you know, that sort of thing." He laughed heartily, and I couldn't be sure how serious he was. I was getting some really bad vibes off of this guy. It was when he took his second puff of his cigarette that I noticed what was wrong. He didn't use a lighter. His cigarette had been lit by thin air.

"Reika…."

"I'm starting to get the hint." We both started to get up, but the man stood up with us, planting his hands on our shoulders.

"Oh please, sit down will you? I'm enjoying our conversation." His hands felt burning hot, even through my shirt, and I winced as I sat down, fighting back the tears that were welling up behind my eyes. That got Zach's attention, as he finally turned away from the window.

"Huh? Reika, Riley, what's up?" It was only then that I finally realised that he seriously didn't notice that this old man's hands were glowing like burning coals, or that he was smoking an unlit cigarette. Or that his eyes had gone completely black, the whites of his eyes and everything. I thought that would have stuck out at least. I was sure if we tried to scream or call out, we'd be piles of ash in a second.

"Yeah, everything's cool. Hope you're ready for the quest, Zachariah." I was hoping that would trigger a reaction, but nothing. He just nodded his head and carried on as usual.

"Please, I'm always prepared. Packed all my favourite weapons too, and the Megiddo Circuit is totally ready for anything."

 _You moron!_ I wanted to scream at him. _Why are you pulling out your secret weapon right in front of this guy?! That's probably the only reason he hasn't killed us already, to find out where it is!_ I guess my angry mental screams didn't reach him, because he began rummaging through his duffle bag, the Megiddo Circuit clearly visible. The old man smiled, keeping one hand right in front of our faces, sparks flying between his fingers as he silently reached for the tool with his free hand. The sound of a gun being loaded froze him in his tracks. A pistol was notched under Zach's armpit, pointed straight at the old man's forehead.

"I don't know what you are, but you've got a lot of nerve to try and steal this right from under my nose, _and_ to try and threaten those two." The old man smiled, laughing a little to himself.

"You wouldn't shoot me in such a crowded place, would you?" Sure enough, they were starting to attract more stares than they would have liked, people turning in their seats to see what was happening. They couldn't see the gun yet, but that would change pretty quick if Zach blew this guy's head off.

"You'd be surprised. I've done worse in busier places."

"Well that's a darn shame. I was hoping I could get that little toy of yours without a scratch. My contractors won't be too happy if it's covered in your blood, and dry cleaning probably doesn't cover that."

"I've got a better offer than whatever you're being paid. I _won't_ plant a bullet in your skull if you back off peacefully right now."

"I wish I could, kid, but you know how demons work. We lie, but we never break our contracts. And why would I back up? The way I see it, you guys are outnumbered here." The bus drove into a tunnel, the bus getting filled in near total darkness. Everywhere I looked, I could see little pinpricks of red light hovering in the air like fireflies, always in sets of two, the brightest of the glow coming from the driver's seat. Then it hit me. These weren't like our indecent old man right by us. These were the glowing red eyes of monsters.

An explosion tore the air apart. My ears felt like they'd just exploded, and I reached my hands up to my head to protect them from the sound. Just a single gunshot, but from so close it may as well have been a grenade. The bus exited the tunnel and everyone burst into action, barely giving me any time to recover. They looked like they were moving in slow motion at first, but I snapped myself out of it, the world returning to its usual pace.

The old man had fallen back somewhere in his chair, but the rest of the passengers whirred into life, quite literally, the sound of gears and machinery coming from their limbs as they stomped towards us. Zach got up, firing well aimed shots to their hearts or foreheads. Some of them stopped or fell, but most of them kept walking like a wall of bronze.

"Automatons!" Reika called out. She placed her feet against the back of her seat and used it as a springboard, launching forward and digging her shoulder into an automaton's gut. The impact looked painful, her whole body crumpling to the floor with no real difference to the automaton. I drew my dagger and headed towards her when the bus made a sharp turn left, swerving all over the highway and slamming us against the windows. I dropped my dagger in the panic, an automaton kicking it away before yanking me off the floor with an iron grip. Zach bashed the back of its skull in with his pistol, sparks flying in the air as it let go of me. I shook out my wrists, then thrust my palms into its stomach, knocking it backwards into a chair.

He fired at another one, first in its knee and finally in its head, the robot collapsing as we headed for Reika. She had been grabbed by four Automatons, and they were each pulling a limb like they were trying to stretch her.

"I know you guys are busy and all," she squealed, her breath strained. "But… could you please… help?!" Now I was pissed. We'd barely even started and this was what we had to deal with. Creepy paedophilic old men with glowing hands and people made of steel. I balled my fist tighter than I was clenching my teeth, aiming it for an android in a hideous looking purple floral dress.

"I don't think punching them is a good…." The rest of Zach's warning was lost as I roared, planting my fist firmly in its chest. The robot went flying, taking three more automatons with it, and almost yanking Reika with it too if she hadn't slipped out of its grasp when I hit it.

"Get off ya tin-can hitch-hikers!" I roared. I could feel the cool touch of metal around my hands and forearms. I looked down at them, seeing the familiar shape of large celestial bronze gauntlets, a large bear paw etched into the palms and reinforced studs around the knuckles. The tips of the fingers had big claws coming out of them, perfect for tearing everything to shreds. It took Zach a second to drink it all in before Reika snapped him out of it, clicking her fingers in his face.

"Right, sorry." He snapped his goggles onto his eyes. "Reika, get the wheel. Riley-"

"I'll kill you all!" I roared, lunging into the fray. Space was limited, but that was perfect for what I was going to do to them. I punched, shredded, and slashed my way through them, bits of metal and gross fake skin flying everywhere as I paved a path to the driver's seat. One of them tried to punch me, its fist slamming into my face, and staying there, not even making a dent. I grabbed its wrist, turning to it slowly.

"That hurt you jerk! That really freaking hurt!" I closed my hand, the automaton's wrist collapsing on itself before planting my fist in its face. It flew right out the window, broken glass and all. Reika dashed between the aisle, appearing at the driver's seat, wrestling with the driver for the wheel.

"I'm borrowing this, thank you very much!" She pulled out a slightly oversized knife (or slightly undersized sword) and sliced clean through the automaton's hands, leaving it to look at the open wiring of its stumps as she got the bus off the highway. The coach clearly wasn't meant for off-road travel, each individual bump rattling us so much I swear my fillings were shaking inside my teeth. I looked back to see Zach running down the aisle, clutching the chairs desperately as the bus jumped a few feet into the air.

"Pull the emergency brakes!" I screamed as I backhanded someone's robotic grandmother.

"I tried, they uninstalled them!" I turned to Reika desperately. She took a step back, bounding over the gearstick and running her rollerblades across the front windscreen. How she pulled this off, I still don't know, but she spun like that, leaped off the other door, twisted one more time, and dropkicked the driver into his own door, both the driver and his door falling out onto the dirt below with the clutter of trashed metal.

"Stop the bus!" Zach roared. It looked like she was on that when they hit something that clearly wasn't their average rock. The whole bus flipped onto its side. I was in the process of strangling a robotic poodle when I felt my whole body become weightless temporarily. Then the bus slammed into a tree, and everyone slammed into the roof (or wall or whatever). I cried out in pain as my forearm felt like it had been coated in a furnace whilst being frozen numb. Yup, something was definitely broken. Or at least sprained with the awkward angle my arm was twisted at. And only _then_ did the emergency lights turn on.

"Come on," Zach yelled, pulling me up by my bad arm almost violently. I screamed at him, and he dropped me painfully like I was going to eat him. "Sorry, sorry. But we've got to get out of here. I don't know how many of them are still functioning." He pulled out the Megiddo Circuit, pointing it at the roof. "Nekomata!" She appeared in a flash of light, and for once she wasn't sleeping. She seemed to get the idea already, scratching it violently a few times before outright punching a hole through it. We all crawled through, trying desperately to escape the damage we'd just caused.

"You're rather naughty children, aren't you?" a voice said, as something crawled out after us. It was the old man, a single bullet embedded in his head. It was still smoking too. It plopped out and into his hand. He observed it curiously before looking up at us. "That smarts you know. How would you feel if I shot you in the head?"

"I dunno, dead might be a start," I suggested. This guy was seriously starting to piss me off. I only needed one arm to handle him, but I could feel my energy starting to fade. Reika looked slightly sick too, so there was no point asking her to do anything. Zach fired a few times. Most of the shots missed, but the ones that were on target were swatted aside like they were nothing, melted in the process and splattering against the bus in liquid form. Nekomata lunged at him, but he just kicked her in the face, sending her careening back to Zach's feet.

"Dear me, and here I was expecting you to be good at using demons. I have to say, I'm rather disappointed." For a second, I almost forgot that he was some horrible abomination. He honestly sounded like a sad old man whose nephew had done something he wasn't proud of. "Well, since you can't live up to your weapon, how about I take it off your hands, give it to someone who can use it?"

"I don't think so, it's a pretty cool toy," he said. Wind built up around him again, his trench coat billowing around him as if he were in a gale. "Nekomata, return! Let's do this, Jack Frost, Aura!" Nekomata vanished in a cloud of blue smoke, getting replaced by two more red sparks.

One of them was a short snowman, about half my height, with a really wide, innocent smile, blue boots, and a blue cap that made it look a bit like an elf. The other was a slim, black haired woman in a flowing white dress. But she was floating in the air, and slightly transparent, almost ghost-like. "Guys, initiate arctic devils trap!" The ghost, or aura, darted forward, flying with her arms outstretched like she was pretending to be a bird. She flew around the old man, blowing gusts of wind at him. He looked like he was getting pretty angry, breathing out great gusts of flames at her in rage. "Reika, go!"

"O-on it!" she stuttered, streaking towards the man. She leaped into the air and dropkicked him in the face, the old man falling backwards and skidding through the dirt. A few more automatons were starting to crawl out of the hole in the bus, but the aura's wind kept them all from taking any more steps forward.

"Jack Frost, bufula, now!" The snowman complied with a little bit too much glee, the air around us instantly dropping ten or twenty degrees as it held its arms out in front of it. Snowflakes began falling around us, but for the people in the bus, it was more like a blizzard, the whole vehicle getting frozen solid as it was encased in a giant block of ice. The Jack Frost looked more carefully at it before blasting it with a bit more ice, carving a smiley face onto it. Zach exhaled a long breath, his arms going limp as the monsters returned to light, disappearing from view. We stood together in a line, admiring the havoc we'd just caused.

"We've been a team for less than twenty four hours," Reika began.

"And we've already capsized a bus," Zach continued.

"And torn apart the environment," I finished. "We're not a bad team, eh?"


	6. WE HITCH A RIDE ON THE MYSTERY MOBILE

**Quick request for help guys. I'm relatively new to writing Percy Jackson fanfic, or reading it either. If anybody knows any forums where I can discuss Percy Jackson things or whatever (that's still active), then I'd appreciate it if you could tell me about it! And no, I'm not talking about Roleplays. I can find those without too much difficulty if I need them. But yeah, Percy Jackson things. Thanks in advance! Also, I was supposed to post this chapter yesterday, and then about six hours ago today, but alas, I was busy the whole week. I'm sorry. So I'll try make it up to you with this chapter, and of course, the next one on Monday, as usual!**

 **CHAPTER 6: WE HITCH A RIDE ON THE MYSTERY MOBILE**

Zach would have done anything at this point for a cheeseburger. Dinner consisted of cheese and crackers, and crushed crackers at that after the Battle Royale in the bus. He'd acquired a couple of nasty gashes, and he still felt lightheaded from when the bus tipped over. He had to deal with it the old fashioned way: by practically mummifying himself, bandaging his head and the cuts around his stomach. His trench coat was also pretty shredded, so those were some bonus points. Riley didn't have to worry though. It didn't look like she was going to move her arm for a while, but a swig of nectar and an ambrosia square later and all it needed was some rest to be good as new. He didn't dare try take some himself. He wasn't up for becoming a melted people puddle and soak into the ground. If demi-gods had to be careful, then there was no way he was going to sample any with his mortal flesh. After the destruction of their last mode of transport, they were going to try and hitch a ride or keep walking until they found shelter, but with the way it was getting dark they didn't have much of a choice but to camp out in the wood. And that's where they sat down to have their meagre dinner. Rationing.

"Hey, Riley," Zach asked, "what was that weird thing you did?"

"What weird thing?"

"You know, the whole power up thing. You were glowing red, and these weird gloves popped up…."

"I was glowing?"

"What, you didn't notice?" Riley shook her head.

"I was too busy trying to smash the next thing that moved." She smiled sadistically to herself, and Zach was tempted to edge away from her slowly, but wasn't sure how she'd react to that.

"Well, the gauntlets are a bit of a long story. They're pretty much bound to me, so when my blessing activates, they appear to help me shred people."

"Your blessing? Like, some kind of gift from the gods?"

"Exactly that," Reika confirmed. "What you saw was a downgraded version of the blessing of Ares. When a child of Ares is in a pinch, and they're _seriously_ pissed, like, 'I'll eat your babies' pissed, then Ares grants them a blessing that makes them just about invulnerable in battle. It can normally only be used in extreme circumstances, but Riley is…"

"Easily irked?"

"Yeah, that. She's always ready for a fight. Not that other Ares kids aren't, but when something makes Riley mad, she can use a weaker version of it easily. She becomes freakishly strong, and nothing short of a shotgun shell to the face will hurt her, let alone kill her."

"Sounds like fun."

"As long as you're not on the other side!" she laughed. "Most demi-gods end up getting a gift or blessing of some kind from their godly side. Ares kids are all scary fighters, and pretty big." Zach took a look at Riley. Compared to him, she was buff, but against the other Ares kids, she was a joke.

"The genes must have skipped a generation."

"You know I can hear you," she said as she shot him a menacing glare.

"So Ares kids get strong. Anything else?"

"Yeah, loads," Reika continued. "Apollo kids are natural musicians. Hephaestus's lot are genius mechanics and designers. Children of Athena are super smart, but as you've seen, they're tough as well. Goddess of war and all that."

"So what about Hermes's kids?" A sly smile appeared on her face.

"Other than a natural knack for causing trouble? Well, we're kind of tricky to explain. Hermes is the god of messengers, but he's also the god of thieves and travellers. We're normally a kind of jack of all trades. Good at all, master of none. But we're also good at getting in and out of trouble real quick."

"Literally in your case."

"Yeah, I'm kinda the weird one, even amongst them. Every now and then, a demi-god gets a rare or unusual power. This one Hephaestus kid got the power to control fire, and that hasn't been seen for centuries. Once, a Poseidon kid could make earthquakes instead of control water. I got Hermes's super speed. I can't quite control it very well though." That much, Zach could already guess. Almost immediately after their fight, she threw up on the side of the road. It wasn't a pretty sight.

"I'm guessing it's too stressful huh?"

"Yeah, pretty much. I'm still human. If I move super – fast for too long, my body starts to wear down, and it uses way too much power. And if I crash, it's really bad."

"So you use the rollerblades to limit your power. You can't move as fast on them as if you tried running normally."

"Bingo. At first I was horrible in them, but I got the hang of it pretty quick."

"After face planting at a hundred miles per hour," Riley commented, then continued before she could protest. "So how long did you say that giant ice block would last?"

"Well I enchanted it myself, so it will be there for a while, but that guy will probably melt his way out early. So about three days? This is probably our only chance to rest."

"That guy seemed really determined to get us, you in particular. Who, or _what_ was that?"

"That looked like an ukobach, a small time pyro order demon that supposedly stokes the flames of the underworld. It's not Greek in case you were wondering, so don't feel bad about not knowing it. That wasn't its true form though. That one was probably possessing some poor guy who just so happened to be nearby at the time. Explains why he had a cigarette instead of a pan of coals. Anyway, that guy was _definitely_ after the Megiddo Circuit. He waited until he knew where it was before attacking, and even then he was holding back a lot so that he wouldn't roast it."

"That was holding back?! I thought you said he was small fry?"

"He is, but he's still a demon. You don't mess with them." She shrugged her shoulders, and Zach was pretty sure that the friendly advice hadn't sunk in at all. "I'm serious. Don't go randomly picking fights with them, and never fight them alone."

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Riley said. "Next time we meet, I'll have both of my arms working, then we'll see how cocky he feels."

"Did you even hear what I said?" Riley unrolled her sleeping bag and leaped into it, the thing completely camouflaged against the leaves. If he couldn't see her chest rising and falling, he wouldn't even know she was there.

"I got first watch," Reika said, unusually energetic considering the stressful day they'd just had. Zach was going to protest, but he could feel his muscles weighing him down. He rested his head, immediately finding an enormous rock there, but he barely even noticed as he passed out.

* * *

They hadn't planned to spend the whole morning travelling by foot, but that was just the way it went. It's not like anybody really expected their transport to get blown up as soon as it left Manhattan. That was just an occupational hazard. But when a large caravan that looked like the Mystery Mobile finally stopped by the side of the road, Zach felt that they'd finally lucked out. Even though the van clearly looked like it should have a whole family in it, there was just a single, relatively middle-aged couple. A red faced man leaned out of his window, and he was wearing this ridiculous Hawaii t-shirt.

"Are you kids lost? Heading somewhere in particular?"

"Well, we were heading towards Denver. Actually, we needed to make it to Los Angeles, important business and all."

"Los Angeles? Tell me, where are your parents?" _Of course, the usual question_ , Zach thought to himself, but he'd already come prepared for this.

"Our parents live in Denver. We were going to meet up there and then carry on, head to Alamo and the likes. Family visits and all that. We were visiting relatives in Manhattan, but we kinda got stranded on our way back. We'd really appreciate the lift." The man didn't look too sure, but his wife seemed to be taken by it. She had silvery grey curly hair that made her head look kind of like a very shiny bush, and it kept on jiggling like it was made of jelly and not human hair.

"Oh of course you can! We always love to have company! Actually, we were heading the same way too! Come on in!" Between getting in a car with jelly head and walking the rest of the way, it wasn't much of a contest, but Zach was still a little bit wary. The last old man they'd run into had been a fire breathing demon.

The caravan was rather comfortable, considering that it was cramped and moving. There were enough chairs for everybody and a tiny table for food, plus a bunk bed, but those probably belonged to the old man and woman couple driving. What stood out were all the alien memorabilia plastered everywhere. The interior was filled with silvers and greens that made it hard to look at anything, and there were strange, gimmicky looking items everywhere, from generic looking alien posters to weird aluminium sculptures. There were even matching tin hats on the top bunk, and the air freshener at the front of the car was in the shape of a green big eyed alien's head.

"If you're heading to Nevada, you _have_ to stop by Rachel," the old lady said. "The Lil' Al' Li' Inn has some great fries, you'll see! Or maybe you could do some reading up in Alamo. You said you were stopping there, right? There's a lot of extra-terrestrial activity going on in Nevada, especially Highway 375."

"You know, that's where I met my wife," the man said. "We were travellers, just like you, and we ended up getting abducted at the same time. Then we met. _On the alien's mothership_!" He said that last part softly like it was a secret, the couple looking lovingly into each other's eyes. Zach was tempted to puke, and Riley didn't look like she was faring any better, and how he kept driving without looking at the road was beyond them.

"We didn't know it at the time though," he continued. "Completely wiped our memories when we got sent back. We had to recover them through hypnosis." They didn't have much choice but to listen to the couple ramble about their experiences, or whatever they were, but Reika was out cold after having stayed up most of the night. Nobody really wanted to answer their questions when they came their way either, but they did anyway until finally the car came to a grinding halt by nightfall. The couple (who by now had introduced themselves as Roger and Maria) insisted that they could use their beds and stayed by the wheel, but nobody really wanted to touch them so they stayed in the chairs.

Riley slept like she was dead, not even so much as twitching, and Zach was trying to copy her, but their poor seating arrangements didn't exactly make life easier for them. He was just about to give up when he heard movement coming from Reika's seat. He opened his eyes just enough to see Reika getting up, gently covering Riley with the blanket they'd borrowed. She stealthily crept out of the car, closing the door gently behind her. Zach waited a few minutes, and then silently got up after her, a little too curious about where she was going.

They'd stopped by a pretty ordinary looking fast food restaurant that felt compelled to place itself in the middle of nowhere, the bright neon MEGABITE sign flashing sporadically, and only with four letters so it looked more like ME A T. The carpark was pretty barren, filled with a few eighteen wheelers and one or two smaller cars. Zach spotted Reika standing at the end of the carpark just staring up at the night sky. It was only when Zach was standing right next to her that he realised she was shorter than him without her rollerblades.

"Couldn't sleep?" he asked.

"Could you?" That answered the question. There was an awkward silence hanging in the air for a moment as Zach tried to think of something to say.

"So, uh… what are you doing anyway? You know, out here? It's kind of cold."

"Well, you should have brought a blanket if you were gonna complain about it." Zach shrugged his shoulders. _Well, this is going marvellously,_ he thought to himself. _What am I meant to say now? Lovely weather we're having, I wonder if it will be showering monsters tomorrow?_

"Um… so what _are_ you doing?" he finally asked.

"Nothing much, just drinking in the darkness. Still checking if I'm being watched. The usual."

"Watched by Hermes?" She smirked a little, but she didn't confirm the guess.

"It's been a while since I've been out of Camp Half-Blood," she said. "I've been there pretty much year round ever since I was nine."

"You've never left? Not even for quests and stuff?"

"Nope. Never. Whenever we got quests, I'd always get too scared, even if I was the perfect pick for them. I'm not strong like Riley or smart the way you are, so I figured I couldn't do them."

"Seriously? You tackled an android and dropkicked a demon. With rollerblades! I think you've got to give yourself a bit more credit than that!"

"Yeah, I'm pretty awesome, ain't I?" she conceded, but her smile was clearly false. "Still, I don't think I can really support you guys that much. I know I'm not the easiest person to live with. I'm all over the place and hectic, and my power's only really good for running away. It's gonna take a while before I figure out what I'm good at."

"I'll be as patient as I need to be until you do." The cold night air blew around them, picking up trash and empty plastic bags and dropping them a few feet away. The infinite but clouded sky, speckled with the occasional glimmer of light loomed over their heads, its immense vastness towering over the pathetic isolation of the ME A T restaurant, and as Zach joined her gaze looking up at that sky, he couldn't help but wonder whether his mom was looking up at the same sky as him. Whether even across unknown distances, they were still connected like that. And he couldn't help but wonder what Reika was wondering in her rare moment of inactivity.

He didn't know how long he would have stayed there if he hadn't sneezed. He could feel the chill creeping up on him, and Reika clearly picked up on it when he sneezed two more times in a row.

"Hey, you're going to get sick if you stay here. Come on, let's get back to the car." He agreed, hoping that there was no snot dribbling out of his nostrils, and they headed back. They'd barely taken three steps when the winds suddenly turned violent, squalls of air and gale force winds bowling them over. The few trees that were nearby were bending over backwards, creaking wood and twisting metal from signs and bits of damaged cars filling the air as they bent over and snapped, being converted to deadly projectiles. Zach looked up at the caravan, and sure enough, it was slowly twisting and caving within itself, but it wasn't being knocked over like the mini cooper to their left. But that was probably because that was the source of the wind.

Directly above it was a gigantic silver saucer, flashing lights and a multitude of beeps and whirrs coming from it. Shining from directly beneath it was a bright white light, illuminating the caravan, and like some kind of futuristic tractor beam, was pulling it up slowly. Zach was totally speechless. He looked at Reika who looked equally speechless, but no matter how hard he yelled, his voice just got snatched up by the wind. That, and a few stray insects ended up finding their way into his teeth.

A fresh gust of wind buffeted them again, knocking them into a red eighteen wheeler. The truck driver opened his door with a yell, looked up at the saucer with an awestruck expression, and then immediately had the door slam itself into his face, probably knocking him effectively unconscious. Zach couldn't even move his fingers. He just barely managed to tilt his face towards Reika, and since they were effectively glued together against the truck, hearing each other was no longer an issue.

"Aliens?! Of all the things… I'm not trained for this!"

"Aliens? Stupid, the mist! Put on your goggles!" The way his eyes were stinging, he didn't need to be compelled as he just barely managed to slide one lens over one eye. Suddenly, the scene looked very different. They were still caught in the middle of a flash hurricane, but now the saucer was a very different sight. He didn't get much of a chance to register it before his vision began to swim. He couldn't breathe and he felt bruised. It wasn't much longer before he closed his eyes, and passed out, the roar of the wind getting drowned out in the depths of his consciousness.


	7. I RIDE THE WORLD'S ANGRIEST CHICKEN

**CHAPTER 7: I RIDE THE WORLD'S ANGRIEST CHICKEN (Reika's thoughts)**

This was officially worst case scenario. So here we were, outside in the middle of the night. I was in my old trainers that were definitely way too worn out, unarmed, in the middle of nowhere, and Zach was unconscious, also unarmed, with his only weapon being something that only he could use. In a hurricane. And right in the eye of the storm was the source of it all, what looked like a gigantic, five ton parrot.

This thing was huge, a gigantic green bird with black feathers around its plume, and each time it flapped its wings, there was a fresh wave of wind that destroyed stuff around us. The caravan was barely the size of its feet, and it had dug its talons into the side of the vehicle. Zach said that he'd seen a flying saucer, but I'm not sure what alien movies that _he'd_ been watching if that was his definition of a UFO. In retrospect, I probably should have calmed down and thought about a plan of action. Maybe I should have given Zach some medical attention. He didn't look too good, what with his eyes rolled up to the back of his head. But I didn't. I pulled one of my usual, impulsive stunts.

I pushed myself up against the side of the truck, planting my sneakers firmly on it. I took a deep breath, trying not to let the biting, stinging wind stop me. I could feel power flowing through my veins, like my blood was turning to liquid fire, searing my muscles into action. My heart was doing overtime, and it was a struggle just to maintain my breathing. Without my blades? There was no way this was going to turn out okay. Then I kicked off.

The first thing I felt was the wind trying to slam me back, like a giant hand was arm wrestling against my whole body. But that wasn't stopping me. After all, it was just a hurricane, right? Nothing special. I sprinted right through the wind, the scenery around me becoming a blur as I dodged past a careening Ford Focus. I almost felt sad seeing it rolling through the carpark like that. Whoever owned it would _not_ be happy when they found it.

The giant bird was rising higher into the air, the caravan now quite a few feet above the ground. There was no way the couple and Riley wouldn't notice it. A Prius bowled through the air on a one way collision course to my face, and a few other signs and small trees were also being chucked through the air. The storm was getting stronger the closer I got to it. Perfect.

I leaped into the air, my foot landing on the windscreen of the Prius. I ran all along the vehicle as it turned in mid-air, then leaped off of that. A wayward tree nearly took my head off, but I simply grabbed it, trying not to let the bark tear the skin off my palms as I spun through the air. Now I wasn't on the ground, the wind was starting to push me back again, blasting me back against the tree I had just passed.

I kicked off of it, leaping from one airborne and potentially fatal object to the next. I knew the drill; one slip up and I'd be a ketchup stain on the pavement. I could see objects and bags flying out of the window, including Zach's bag of guns, closely followed by Riley's bag as they got snatched away by the wind. I was glad that I put my stuff inside a cabinet, but I wasn't sure if it would stay bolted in these winds.

I took one more leap of faith, my arm outstretched towards the car. I felt my fingers curl against a shattered window. I screwed my eyes shut as a jagged piece of glass dug itself into an already raw wound, but catapulted myself higher anyway, yanking myself up to the bird's talon. Clambering up it was not an easy task, and every time the bird flapped its wings, the air nearly tore my grip off of it. I made the stupid mistake of looking down, and saw the lights of the ME A T restaurant receding into a small dot in the distance. That alone nearly killed me, my blood going cold at the thought of falling. I forced myself to tear my eyes away from the sight.

We were definitely moving now, but we were heading south, not west, and fast too. I couldn't stay there. My grip would eventually slip, and I would be heading for a hundred foot drop. Demigod or not, I was dead if that happened. I grabbed hold of a clump of feathers, and using them as handholds, I pulled myself higher and higher, sliding past its wings and onto its back. The wind stung and snapped at my clothes, the chill worse than any freezer anywhere. I'd take ice and snow any day over the way the wind was sapping my strength. Finally, I headed towards its neck, a huge collar of feathers already puffed up in a natural bed. I buried myself in them, amazed at the way they blocked almost all of the wind, warm air trapped in it. As long as I stayed _really_ still and held on tight, I wouldn't fall to my death.

The first step was complete, but what was I meant to do after that? Whatever I was thinking suddenly drifted to the back of my mind. I knew it. I used up _way_ too much energy with that stunt. And I was running against a storm too. My muscles were burning and my bones felt shattered. The sickening nausea caused by having your insides jiggle around at high speeds was returning, and I felt like I was going to be sick right on this creature's back. There was no way it would take that well. I swallowed down the bile in disgust, willing myself not to puke all over it, then lay my head against its warm back, drifting off to sleep.

* * *

I woke up to the sight of the setting sun. I guess I was thankful to the fact that I wasn't having to squint against the bright light of daybreak against my retinas, but that just meant I had slept the entire night _and_ the entire day. My stomach was not going to forgive me for missing so many meals. I poked the top of my head up out of the bird's feathers and observed my surroundings. Wherever we were, it didn't look like Manhattan anymore.

All around me were the tops of mountains, green valleys between and below them. There was a single mountain road weaving in and out of them. While roads and rocks surrounded us, we looked like we were on the top of a plateau, inside a bundle of logs and trees that made up its nest. It looked like it had taken half a forest just to make it. Since the bird wasn't moving and was on solid ground, I was guessing the caravan was somewhere nearby, maybe planted under its wing as it curled up. Its muscles all stretched and creaked as it shifted itself into a slightly more comfortable gigantic feathery ball. I didn't move an inch as I waited for who knows how long, until I was sure it was doing what I thought it was. It had fallen asleep. Well, I guess it made sense. It had been flying all night and for who knows how much of the day. It needed to catch up on its rest.

I slowly slid off of its back, still clutching onto its feathers and using them as holds on my descent. There was no way I was going to let myself break a leg on a twenty foot drop. Finally, I landed on the ground, trying to orient myself after having been in the air for so long, and looked around for the caravan. I found it half buried by a gigantic wing.

"Reika. Reika!" I could hear an urgent whisper coming from it, and a few moments later, Riley's face appeared in the window. I crept towards the vehicle, opening the door as silently as I could. Riley pulled me in before I could step a foot inside myself.

"What the hell is going on?!" she half screamed and half whispered. "Where the hell are we?"

"Well, we just got picked up by a giant green bird. No idea where we are, but I'm pretty sure it's not Denver. Last I checked, there were mountains."

"Are you kidding me?! This is totally not good! We're on a mountain in the middle of nowhere, with a giant bird of prey as our host! When I woke up, I didn't know where you and Zach were and… where's Zach?"

"He missed the flight."

"Great. The one person who can control monsters and he's not here when we need him. Shows how reliable he is." There was a rush of activity from the front of the caravan, the old couple pulling themselves out from the front seats.

"Is everybody okay?" Roger asked. He was still just as red faced as ever, and it formed a funny contrast with his ghostly looking wife. "You're all safe, right?"

"Y-yeah, we're fine," I replied. "Zach wasn't on-board when we got…." I wasn't sure where to go from there. I wasn't even sure what they would be thinking, being mortal and all. Their expressions remained stony for a few moments. Then, they began to crack into a wide, archaic smile that probably hadn't been seen since the late seventies.

"They took us, didn't they?"

"Um, who took us?" Riley asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Maria spoke up. "The aliens! I woke up and saw the whole thing! There was an intense light, and we were pulled up into the sky. They even took the car this time! That's a new one for me!"

"Aliens?" Riley looked sceptical, and I kind of got her seeing as we were clearly inside a giant bird's nest.

"Didn't you see the UFO?" Roger asked. "Well, I guess that's understandable. You were asleep the whole time."

"Riley," I began. "How the hell did you sleep through all of that?!"

"Oh come on, I was exhausted!"

"You _literally_ slept through a hurricane! _A hurricane!_ "

"You're exaggerating-"

"There's bits of twisted metal and broken crockery everywhere! There's a bit of broken window right next to the chair, your _head_ was on that spot!"

"I must have just gotten lucky then, huh?" I rolled my eyes, and looked for my rollerblades. I had to dig through piles of debris and broken crockery but I eventually found them, impaling a cabinet door. I quickly dusted them off and searched for any loose screws or wayward splinters while the old couple headed for the door. Riley quickly went over to stop them.

"I don't think that's a good idea!" she quickly said.

"Are you kidding me?" Roger yelled. "We've been waiting patiently all day, and the only thing it's proved is that they aren't hostile. Do you have any idea how rare this is, to actually be _on-board_ an alien spacecraft? Just look outside!" I didn't know what they were seeing, but when I peered out the window, I saw the sleeping face of our feathered air host. Looking right at it now and in broad daylight, it looked really colourful, and the dark blue of its collar had turned to a vibrant indigo. It almost looked peaceful sleeping there, but its face was armoured by some weird bone ridge, and there were weird beads hanging by threads on the side of its face. They almost looked like they were a flamboyant set of ear rings.

Riley looked at me, and I shrugged my shoulders. I didn't know what to do, and I wasn't about to offer any suggestions.

"Look, why don't we take a look around first? We don't know what's out there, and you wouldn't want to get hurt and miss the chance to explore a place like this, right? Besides, they might attack anybody who leaves, so we should scout it out first." They didn't look happy, and Maria snapped a picture of the outside using a digital camera anyway. I had no idea what would come out, and I still wasn't sure what they would see when they looked at it. Either way, they let up, going to the crumpled up back seats.

"Don't go too far," Roger said. "If anything looks weird, tell us about it, pronto. We've got a lot more experience than you kids." I rolled my eyes as I strung my blades around my neck by the laces. The ground didn't exactly look like the best place to be rolling around on them. My stomach growled in protest as I stood up again, but food would have to wait.

We crept out, looking around in wonder. The bird's nest was massive, way too massive. I stepped on a loose branch and screamed as the whole thing gave way. I felt Riley grab my arm as I dangled above a huge crevice in the construct. My scream echoed all across the inside of the nest. I had to applaud the creature for some pretty impressive architecture, but it wasn't exactly hazard free for us puny humans. Riley turned towards the bird, hoping that it hadn't heard my scream. It stirred its feathers, opening and shutting its great white beak before drifting off back to sleep. I felt slightly offended. Were my lungs not strong enough to even yawn about?

She pulled me out, and together we clambered to the lip of the nest. To our right was a vast plain, a distant road spreading further away from us, while our left had a few more mountains dotted sparsely among rolling green and yellow plains. Straight ahead of us was the tip of an even taller mountain, and in there a cave large enough to have once housed a smaller, slightly more user friendly version of our kidnapper.

"Why did this thing take us here anyway?" Riley asked.

"I dunno, probably to eat us? Apparently Half-Bloods are crunchy and taste good with ketchup."

"If that was it, then don't you think it would have eaten us on the spot instead of take us to its home?"

"Huh. Maybe it's got chicks or something? And it's gonna chew us up, and feed us to them!"

"Don't say that! Especially with that creepy expression on your face, it's freaking me out!" I'm guessing I had a sadistic smile or something on, but it's not like I could help that. It sounded logical and kinda cool, though I wasn't looking forward to being bird food either. "I haven't seen anything like that, and there's no eggs either, so that's probably not it either. Why then?"

We didn't get much further in our questioning when we heard a hissing sound. No, let me rephrase that. We didn't hear a _single_ hissing noise, we heard a whole lot of hissing. Like there was a squad of snakes slithering in sync up sandy shelves, seeking suitable sustenance. My sibilant sentence wasn't far off the mark, as they began to rear their ugly heads from behind a large rock formation. Green and scaly, dressed in blue battle armour, these were not the friendly creatures that Zach had been summoning before.

From the waist up, they looked like women, albeit quite a bit scalier, and with green skin. They came complete with forked tongues and slit eyes like snakes. Coming out from their waists however, were thick green twin snake tails. Their movements looked weird, a bit like they were walking on skis that kept wriggling around.

"Are you kidding me?!" I squealed. Riley ducked, pulling me down with her so we were concealed from view.

"Scythian dracaena," she said. "What the hell are they doing here?"

"Not sure I wanna find out," I replied. "Come on, we have to get the old folk out of here. Who knows what they'll do if they find them."

"I've got them, you scout around for a viable escape, or at least a hiding spot. There's no way they won't check the car." Riley went back to the vehicle while I crept away from the dracaena. I tried not to move the big bird too much, and climbed out the other side of the nest. Now that I was on flat ground, I could finally kick up a storm with my speed, but my head started spinning just thinking about using my power again. I would have to keep it real restrained.

I crept around the nest, peering at them from behind a large protruding log. The biggest, and probably the ugliest dracaena approached the bird. It was holding a big golden trident in one hand and a blue shield in the other. It pointed the trident at the bird and poked it a few times rather forcefully. The bird squawked, coming to life in a flurry of feathers as it looked around in confusion. The movements alone rocked the whole caravan and shook the nest, and just moving its wings in a panic nearly bowled everybody clear off the mountainside, myself included. Its big black eyes blinked as it looked for what woke it up. Its gaze focussed on the dracaena. It calmed down, folding its enormous wings as it sat down peacefully again.

"Ssso, you've returned from your hunt?" I was probably not an expert on reading the emotions of parrots, but the bird definitely glared at her. "The amrita, and the Megiddo ccccircuit? Don't tell me you've failed _again_." The bird moved its beak right in front of her face. She scrambled/slithered away in terror, the other dracaena crawling to her side to back her up, all of them pointing their tridents up at it. It slowly pulled its beak away and lifted its great wing, revealing the caravan beneath it. The dracaena squealed in delight, climbing in towards it.

 _That's not good, Riley's still inside_ , I thought. Distractions were needed. I picked up a fist sized rock. It would have to do. I took careful aim, and chucked it at the lead dracaena. I completely missed, hitting a random log instead. Still had the intended effect, all of them turning to the source. _I have to get the timing right_ …. I kicked off, the heat returning to my legs, accompanied by the fatigue and strain my power brought. I was at the other side of the little plateau of ours and holding another rock before anybody could blink. I chucked it again, and this time I hit my target, a dracaena at the back getting a large black eye as it dented her in the face.

"Ow!" The others all roared and hissed angrily, their attention now focussed on the source of the violence, but I was already gone, at the other side of the big bird. I peered through a gap in the nest, noticing Riley leading the old couple out while the dracaena's attention was turned. I picked up another rock and tossed it at the leading dracaena. Anything to keep them busy. That backfired as soon as it caught the rock, now fully aware of where it came from. It hissed in fury as it stared into my eyes, the rest of them all joining their glares with hers.

"Uh, hi guys!" I said sheepishly, perfectly aware of the fact that the bird now knew where I was, and was roaring angrily as it turned to look at me. The dracaena could wait, the bird was the problem. I wasn't even in the same weight division. I turned heel and ran, ignoring the protests my muscles were making. A few hurled spears landed just a few feet shy of my back, landing with a thud in the hard rock as I moved in zigzags, throwing all of their shots off target.

The angry squawking of the bird sounded like it was right next to me, and echoed all around the mountains. I didn't have to look back to tell the thing had gone airborne, because suddenly it felt like I was running through a tornado, my feet leaving the ground as I tried desperately to grab onto something, _anything_ for leverage. I grabbed a dracaena tail. That went down well for the both of us, me screaming in disgust and the dracaena in fury as she turned to face me in mid-air. Nope. I was _not_ going to apologise. Instead, I pulled my rollerblades off my neck and swung them at her face. She screamed as the wind took her further away and off the mountain, and my attention turned back to the giant roaring bird above me.

It hadn't gotten very high yet, but it was kicking up a storm. I didn't want to wait for a repeat of yesterday's hurricane. The wind finally dropped me just at the edge of the mountain, and I had to hold on for dear life. The bird was slowly approaching, each flap of its wings threatening to send me for a three thousand foot drop.

"Hey, guys, let's talk about this, huh?" I pleaded, trying to stall for time before I could get sent flying to my doom. "Why're you attacking us anyway? It's not like we've done anything wrong. Well, maybe killed a few snakes when we were younger, but come on, every hero has!"

"Where is it? Where is the Megiddo Circuit?" she screamed.

"Ah great, another one," I mumbled to myself. "I mean… what the hell is that? The mega biscuit? Never heard of it!"

"Don't try to lie! We know you have it!" The bird let out an angry roar, and the dracaena had to turn around and calm it down. "Hurry up and kill them! Then you can get your immortality!" That got it ticking. If I had stayed still a second longer, I would have died. I dived to the side (at an all too painful twenty miles per hour) as it suddenly lurched forward, its talons smashing into the rocks where I was just hiding. I'm pretty sure I cleared a good thirty feet with that one dive, and even then I was only inches away from sudden death, the edge of a talon whizzing past my ear.

Okay, I have to admit, that I was _definitely_ freaking out now. My throat had tightened up and I felt like I couldn't breathe. My whole body was hurting after I rolled straight into a giant rock, and my muscles felt like they were turning to jelly. I tried to get up, stumbled, and fell. I got up again, but the ground decided to pull itself away from beneath my feet. I knew it, I'd already used my power way too many times. My body was running on fumes now. And just when things couldn't be getting any worse, the bird turned around to face me. I felt my blood running cold in my veins. I would have had a witty response, I swear, but I couldn't really feel my body anymore, let alone my tongue for me to talk.

"Leave her alone!" someone roared. The bird barely had time to turn its head when something small but stupidly strong collided with it. Its expression was priceless (or whatever it passed for in a bird), its whole face contorting and crumpling in on itself as a single, tiny fist slammed into the side of its face. The whole bird toppled over into a heap of feathers on the ground, the storms from its wings stopped as suddenly as they started.

Riley fell, landing gracefully on the ground (or as graceful as you can get when you're leaving two tiny craters when your feet hit the ground), a thunderous expression on her face, licks of translucent red flames coming off of her, the aura of Ares. Her bronze gloves were on and ready to rock. "Alright, who's next?!"

A dracaena made the mistake of attacking her head on, even after seeing her take out a ten ton canary. It stabbed at her, but she simply stepped to the side, catching the spear in one hand and snapping it like a toothpick. That creature didn't live for much longer, disintegrating in a cloud of yellow dust. The remaining ones all hissed, deciding that one at a time wasn't cutting it. Four of them went around her, while four charged from the front, holding their shields up like a large metallic wall while they stabbed at her.

She clawed and batted most of them away with no problem, and the ones that got through just glanced off of her, though not without leaving a few small cuts. She looked way too pissed off to notice the ones that were sneaking around her. I tried to warn her, but my mouth still refused to work properly. One of the ambushers was holding a weighted net, and decided to go fishing for Half-Blood, chucking it at Riley. Even as it took her down, I knew there was no way something like that would hold her, but while she was still startled they all rushed at her, stabbing and spitting in rage. Blessings of Ares or not, eventually they would start doing some major damage.

 _Okay, if I've got any hidden power or whatever, now's the time to figure it out!_ I stood up on wobbly legs, now having to fight back the nausea and rising headaches. Just another one of the symptoms of being a child of Hermes. And then we heard the horn. Nobody seemed to notice, or at least care, about a random car horn. Not until the red 1969 Dodge Charger ran over half of the dracaena. That got everybody's attention.

The car came to a screeching halt, wiping a dracaena off its windscreen like it was a giant, slimy bug. The rest of the dracaena scattered in confusion, and I didn't blame them for being confused. I'd almost forgotten that we were on a mountain road. The car's headlights flashed as two figures stepped out of the front doors.

"Took you long enough!" Riley yelled as she struggled with the net.

"I didn't think you'd be struggling _this_ bad," Zach said as he dusted off his coat, his goggles equipped. "But man, keeping up with you guys wasn't easy. I would have lost you completely if it wasn't for Nekomata." Nekomata, the second figure, smiled, her tail swishing back and forth happily.

"I just followed the funny bird smell until I got here. And that's when I noticed there was something else here too." The dracaena were starting to get back to their feet, just a little dizzy after almost getting turned to roadkill. And even worse, the bird was getting up again, not even fazed by Riley's punch. Zach seemed to get the idea, pulling out a shotgun from the front seat. He whipped it out and pointed it straight down at a groaning dracaena at his feet, firing it straight into its head. It didn't even have time to scream, vaporising instantly.

"Celestial bronze shells," he said as he pumped it. "One shot and you're all dead." They didn't seem to care, all readying their lances to hurl at him. The bird roared, hopping back onto its feet. As soon as it got airborne, Zach started panicking. "Wait, wait! You want amrita, right?" The bird stopped, furling its wings again. "They told you that they wanted amrita, right? If you attack us, I can't give you any, right? A-and if they attack me, you'll never find out where I hid it either!" Immediately, the bird turned on its own allies, roaring at them in rage. They were completely petrified, frozen in position before slowly lowering their weapons. If we were scared of the bird, the dracaena were completely terrified of it.

He slowly edged away from the car, Nekomata eyeing them all with such melodramatic suspicion that I couldn't take her seriously. Riley was still struggling with the net, but now that everybody was at least trying to be calm, I was seriously hoping she wouldn't get out just yet. He edged closer to me, keeping his gun firmly pointed at the dracaena.

"What the hell is amrita?" I asked.

"Ambrosia. The stuff you guys eat."

"Why does it want ambrosia?!"

"I'll explain later. Do you have some?"

"Yeah, inside the caravan, in my backpack…."

"I'm getting some, we need to show it to the bird."

"What? Um, okay, sure I guess…." He headed for the caravan, still eyeing the dracaena suspiciously, though he probably didn't need to with the bird's ever watchful eye lording over us all. None of us was willing to risk getting it angry. Except maybe Riley. He returned holding a bunch of ambrosia squares in his hands, my pack slung over his shoulder. He held them up to the bird.

"See? This is what you're looking for, right? And the nectar too." He clasped them all in one hand while he pulled out a flask from my bag with the other. He unscrewed it, holding it up too. The bird slowly dipped its head, peering at them. I'd read somewhere that birds didn't have a sense of smell, but this one was definitely sniffing something. It seemed to be satisfied, squawking happily. "You can have it all. All of it. And then, these dracaena can hold up their part of the bargain. Immortality. Blessings of all kinds. The chance to be like Garuda." The bird was looking at the snakes expectantly. If a snake's complexion could change, then that was what was happening now, their colour changing from toxic green to a sickly pale colour.

"Um, yesssss, of coursssse! I forgot, we left it with Nene, _she_ can give you your immortality!"

"What, you mean _this_ Nene?" Nekomata asked, opening the boot of the car. She pulled another dracaena halfway out of the boot, this one slightly smaller than the others, tied up with thick ropes and gagged, probably Nene. She looked pretty scratched up, like an army of angry kittens had tried to attack her. "That's not what _she_ said, just so you know. She said that you were lying about all of it. That you don't have any way to give this guy immortality, and you just wanted to use its power to get at us."

"And _then_ you were going to turn it into a giant thanksgiving dinner so you wouldn't have to deal with it anymore," Zach finished.

"Y-you can't prove that, you can't prove anything!" a dracaena squealed.

"Oh really? I can't" He pulled out a mobile phone that I hadn't seen before and pressed play:

*static, followed by the sound of guns being shifted through*

Zach: Good idea, there's got to be a good reason for snakes and birds to be together… okay, why're you here?

Nene: Wh-why would I t-t-tell you?

Zach: Because if you don't, we'll feed you to that giant bird that we've been trailing, that's why!

Nene: No! Don't do that! Please, please! Ssssuparna won't have any mercy!

Zach: Aha, so you don't like it either, right? Then wouldn't you like me to try and get rid of it for you? *long pause* really, it's better than me threatening you, right? You don't look like the other big, scary snake women. You're scared, and not of us either. If you tell us everything you know, we promise we'll get rid of the big scary birdie.

Nene: … You promissse you won't tell the other dracaena?

Zach: I swear, I won't tell another soul. It will be our little secret.

Nene: Okay…. The bird is called Ssssuparna. None of us know where it came from, but it wants to be a hero for sssome reason. The othersss told it that they would make it a hero if it could get sssomething for them, and wanted it to find your friends and the Megiddo Cccircuit. In return, we would give it honour and immortality.

Nekomata: That's impossible, only gods can give immortality, right?

Nene: But Sssuparna doesn't know that. It thinks we'll help him.

Zach: *unintelligible, probably bad language* And what happens once its done?

Nene: I don't know… but nothing good. The othersss are ssscared of it too.

*Recording cuts*

The other dracaena all groaned in exasperation. Apparently, this wasn't the first time that Nene had messed up. Nene tried to scream at him through her gag. Zach looked back at her with a mischievous grin.

"I kept my promise. I didn't tell them anything. You did with this recording, and Nekomata too. The part about cooking Suparna, I just kind of guessed." It roared in fury. "Oh come on, I'm human, you expected me to be honest? And I _didn't_ tell another soul. Not a human one at least." That did it. The dracaena roared in fury, charging for Zach, but they could barely take a few steps before Suparna roared, unfurling its wings in rage.

Buffets of wind bowled them all over. One of the more unfortunate ones tried to stand up again, just to find itself face to face with Suparna's giant beak. It pecked like a lightning bolt, its head darting to the ground and swallowing the dracaena whole before I could even blink. It did it two more times and two more dracaena disappeared from existence. Most of them wised up and started running. Two of them tried to fight, but they got slapped off the mountain with a giant wing, disappearing from view in the distance.

"Right, round two!" Riley roared, finally tearing her way out of the net, fists clenched and ready to rumble.

"No, we're done here!" Zach yelled, pulling her away from the rampaging bird.

"What? But I can-"

"No, you can't, we have to leave, _now_! Reika!"

"Right, I'm up already…." I stood up on wobbly feet, heading to the car. Nekomata slammed the boot shut, and then disappeared. We all somehow crammed ourselves into the front seats, and Zach immediately floored it. I was wondering where he got the car, or when he learned to drive for that matter, but that was definitely the least of our worries with the storm that was starting up again behind us. We had to be killing the suspension with all the bumps and potholes we were driving over. Especially after I saw him heading for the very edge of the plateau. I couldn't see what was over on the other side of that drop, and I didn't want to know how far the drop was to the ground.

"Hey, Zach, what're you doing?!" Riley asked.

"Shut up and watch." He shifted up a gear, the whole machine roaring into life as it sped towards the cliff, and finally launched into the air. I screamed. He screamed. We all screamed. Somewhere between all the screaming, he pulled out the Megiddo Circuit, pressing a few buttons in a panic. Two ghostly figures appeared on either side of the car, looking in through the windows. An aura on the left, and a ventus on the right. The aura waved excitedly at us until the ventus violently nudged her to focus. Or went through her or something seeing as his elbow went partway through her arm when he did.

The two of them flew down beneath the car, disappearing from sight. I know you're not meant to look down when you're somewhere really high up, but this time I couldn't help it after seeing them disappear below us. I peered down at what little I could see. The road looked like it was a million miles away, and what made matters worse was that we were going to miss it, instead heading for an even higher drop a few metres off course. And then, the impossible started to happen. The car started turning, in mid – air no less. Just a gentle tilt at first, a slight slant that wasn't too hard to believe. And then, the whole car was suddenly veering off its course, heading for the road instead. Even the fall didn't seem as steep anymore. The ground was still heading for us way too fast though, and lo and behold, there were two massive trucks that just so happened to be way too close to our target area. I forced myself back against my seat. If we crash landed, I didn't want to be the one idiot who wasn't ready for it. I gripped the dashboard and shut my eyes.

We hit the ground with a crash, every bone in my body jarring from the impact. I felt like I was being tossed around in a giant washing machine, and the car creaked and groaned with a cry of twisted metal. I couldn't see what was happening, but the car felt like it was veering violently side to side, and it was only a matter of time before the whole thing tore itself apart.

I cracked my eyes open slightly to see the car was driving almost on its side, moving on just two wheels. Then, with a lurch, the whole thing tipped back onto four wheels, jerking us one more time before Zach skidded to a halt on the side of the road, a few metres away from the small truck convoy. We stopped for a solid five minutes, none of us saying a word while we all caught our breath, trying to understand what had just happened. I guess I finally realised that we were a little bit too cramped, and awkwardly climbed to the back seat, apologising as I accidentally kicked Riley in the mouth.

I looked through the rear view mirror. We had just fallen down more than a hundred metre drop, and we were still intact. There was still a storm kicking up on top of the mountain, a localised tornado towering up to the sky. There was no way nobody had noticed it, but I guess I couldn't underestimate the mist. I swear I could see a dracaena getting tossed through the air, but we were too far away to really tell.

"Zach," Riley began. Now that her breathing had become more regular again, her gloves were fading away from her hands, the red aura she was surrounded in disappearing. "I didn't know that you could drive. Where did you get the car from?"

"Well, I can't really. No licence or anything. But you learn these things when it's a life or death situation. You interested in General Lee over here?" he asked, stroking the steering wheel affectionately. "I had to steal it. You guys were getting away, so I hotwired the thing and chased after you. When you were getting away, I got Nekomata to follow you by scent."

"General Lee?" I asked.

Yup, General Lee. Thank bad television for that. Anyway, the important thing is that you guys are okay. I was scared that I was too slow."

"Oh no worries, I just nearly got blasted off a mountain," I said. "Riley, are the old man and woman…."

"They should be alright. I sent them down a path that was pretty much safe and sent an Iris message for some help. They'll probably think that aliens are dropping them somewhere."

"I'm sorry I couldn't it earlier," Zach said. It took a while before I realised he was talking to me. "I don't know, it didn't look like a monster to me when I saw it. I just… well… if I'd known sooner, I would have been more prepared."

"I get it, the mist sucks," I said. I know that he said he couldn't see through the mist, but now I'd finally seen how bad it was. Without his goggles, he'd be pretty much blind.

"Anyway, we've got to get out of here, quick. We're a little bit off track, but as long as we don't run into cops, we'll be there in two days. Let's just hope there's a gas station on the way." The engine didn't sound too happy about hitting the road again after that adventure, and there were definitely a few parts that were going to need changing afterwards. It didn't take long after that before Riley cried out in distress.

"My bag!" she yelled. "I didn't see it in the caravan! My dagger, my food, spare clothes, I left them all there!"

"Sorry, I didn't see them on the way here," Zach apologised. "I only managed to find my shotgun, and a few charms and drachmas. It was too dark to see anything else, and I didn't have that much time. Well, at least I've still got some of Reika's stuff."

"Well that's helpful, having Reika's bag but nearly no ambrosia because you thought it would be cool to feed it to the parrot!"

"Well it's not like I actually gave it some! I just kind of dropped a few, that's all."

"Well that makes _everything_ better, huh?"

"Hey, guys," I said. "Instead of arguing, can we _please_ get something to eat instead? I feel like I haven't eaten in a month." I wasn't trying to, but I heard a slight tremble in my voice and I could feel a solitary tear running down my cheek. I must have looked horrible too, because as soon as Riley turned to look at me, her expression softened considerably.

"You've been using your power nonstop, haven't you? Yeah, we have to take a break and eat. We'll collapse and die if we don't." I gave thanks to every single god I knew in my head as we headed to the side of the road again for a lunch break, and tore out a takeaway box from my bag. We'd remembered to get food from the ME A T restaurant before we were attacked. The fries were everywhere, the sauce tasted horrendous, and there was only one box of takeaway after losing the other bags, but I gobbled down my portion in seconds, and Riley had to struggle with her food to stop me from getting her beef jerky. Zach must have been just as hungry as me, because he wolfed down his own at near light speed, and then rested his head on the steering wheel in exhaustion.

"Zach, are you okay?" Riley asked. He waved her comment away absently.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he lied. "I'm just exhausted."

"Hey, when was the last time you slept?"

"When we were on the caravan."

"What?! You were driving this whole time just to find us?"

"Non-stop."

"Aww, you were worried about us!" I teased. I could see his face turning red through the rear view mirror.

"I was not! You guys know about the Megiddo Circuit, and all its limits. I couldn't let monsters learn about that!"

"Oh come on, just admit, you didn't want to be lonely, am I right?" Zach sighed, but didn't respond after that. "You gonna fess up? Eh Zach? Huh?" He didn't say anything. I pulled myself forward a little to see what was wrong. His eyes were shut, and his chest was rising and falling peacefully. His face was hard to see from the angle I was at, but I could see the corners of his lips tilted up in a small smile.

"Wow, he really was up all night," Riley said. "He must have been really scared if he wouldn't even sleep till he found us." I furrowed my eyebrows at him. He didn't exactly look comfortable. I reclined his chair and pushed his head back so he would be less painful to look at.

"This sucks. Our driver's passed out, and we don't have much time," Riley said.

"Why? It's not like we're on a time limit or anything."

"You already forgot? The Ukobach. It's still after us, and it's been three days. By now he's probably defrosted, and he's gonna be mad."

"Oh yeah, that guy…."

"Reika, don't let him freak you out. I can take him, no problem, if I can just get close to him."

"What, within cigar distance for him to try cook us again? I don't doubt you, but maybe we should try and avoid him altogether?" Riley nodded, but it looked like she wanted a rematch anyway. I resigned myself to our fate, and curled up in the back seat. My stomach was still fighting against me, but at least now it wasn't painful to just move. "I'm leaving the first watch up to you. You're the only one of us that actually got a full night's sleep."

"If I see any old men smoking cigars and setting trees on fire, I'll tell you," she assured me. I wanted to reply, but now that my limbs were finally given the chance to rest, I could feel myself going into hibernation. My head felt fuzzy, and my vision was starting to blur. Just before I shut my eyes, I saw Riley turning around and smiling at me. I tried to smile back, and then my eyes closed, and the world went black.


	8. WE EARN FREQUENT FLYER MILES

**Hey, sorry if this chapter feels like it drags on a bit. Complications arose and the chapter I was** _ **meant**_ **to upload basically isn't done yet, but this long version of chapter 8 is what I have. It still has a few nice little hints here and there inside it, so it's still pretty necessary. Anyway, I'll try and finish chapter 9 quick so I can post it on Friday, then chapter 10 next Monday. Enjoy!**

 **CHAPTER 8: WE EARN FREQUENT FLYER MILES (Zachariah's journal)**

This journal thing is starting to become a habit. I guess I've got to keep reminding myself that all of this is real. Sure, I've seen a whole lot of stuff, but maybe Mom was right that professionals are constantly seeing new things every day. I dunno, but I'm not sure I can go back to hunting down ghosts and stuff after saving my friends from a giant eagle thing that causes tornados just by flapping its wings. Maybe.

Anyway, for the first time in a while, I was able to get a full night's sleep, or something similar after I passed out in the middle of the road. I woke up with a start after the usual nightmares. Everything was coming back in bits and pieces, and for a second I thought everyone had been turned to birdfeed. Then Riley punched me in the arm and yelled at me to shut up.

Everybody was more or less awake now, and the sun was just starting to rise in the distance. Reika yawned, making way more noise than was probably helpful. At least she was sleepy, she was a lot easier to deal with when she didn't have energy.

"I snagged us breakfast," Riley said, holding up a few stale tacos. One of them might have been mouldy. They looked unhealthy at best, and downright toxic at worst.

"Where did you find those?" I asked.

"Under my seat."

"There is no way you expect me to eat those," Reika said. And then her stomach made the most ungodly of rumbling noises. Her face turned a brighter red than the car. We burst into laughter, with Reika trying to convince us that it wasn't funny (which failed miserably when her gut interrupted her with more rumbling). I wolfed down my breakfast, and tried to keep it all in. After settling down, we hit the road again.

I wanted to apologise to everyone, and to the car for my bad driving. I'd never actually driven a car before without supervision. Mom just showed me how to do it, made me test it out a few times so I would get the hang of it, but I still wasn't very good at it. I kept making the engine stall, and the car felt too big for me. Riley didn't openly criticise me, but I could see her glares in the rear – view every time I hit a pothole or hit the brakes too hard.

Whoever owned the car before had to have loved it like it was their own child, and here it had just been stolen by a bunch of stupid teenagers. I only wished I could treat it a little better. I _really_ wished that when it started to break down after about fifty miles, smoke seeping out of the hood.

"Are you kidding me?" Riley asked in exasperation. "We _just_ started off! Did you fill it up?"

"Yeah, I made sure, maybe I just left it running for too long?"

"Well can't you fix it?"

"I'm not a mechanic, I'll be lucky if I even know what's wrong!" The hostility radiating off of her was a little too much to handle, so I went out to check anyway. It didn't take long to figure out that probably everything had gone wrong.

The machine was in shambles after the stunt we'd pulled the day before. There were dents and nicks everywhere and the paint was chipping away. It looked like it had been scrunched up a little from when my ventus and aura tried to pick up the car. As soon as I opened the hood, smoke started flying out and into my face. I wouldn't have been surprised if there was a furnace going on in there. All in all, it looked pretty messy. I bet someone could have fixed her though, but I knew that I definitely wasn't that person.

I closed the hood, looked in through the window and shook my head. Riley looked like she was going to punch something. Reika had gone back to sleep, figuring that I wasn't any fun while I was trying to drive. It was around about then that I caught the shadow of something in the sky. Well, I heard the sound first, the roaring engines of an enormous commercial plane.

When I looked up at the sky, I saw it, barely a few hundred feet above our heads. That was way too low to be any kind of commercial jet liner, and it stood out just a bit too much to seriously be carrying anything legal. After the past two days, I was just a little bit paranoid. Besides, shouldn't I have heard the sound of its engines before it looked like it was nose diving towards me? Wait… nose diving?

I don't know why that took so long to click in my head, but when it did, I ducked beneath the car in a panic. The plane passed right over our heads just barely at sub-sonic speeds. I could feel the car shaking as it passed, and the stagnant air picked up into a horrendous gale.

I strapped on my goggles instinctively. You could never be too careful. But I didn't hear any explosions or the sound of twisting metal. Not only that, but the blasts of air from the plane were still there, and getting stronger. I twisted myself around from beneath the car so that I could get a better idea of where it landed.

Well, I'm glad I put on my goggles. I wasn't being stared down by what I thought was a Boeing 747. Instead, it was our hundred ton canary, Suparna. Suparna squawked (now no longer sounding like a jet engine), scaring away every single bird in every single tree within the nearest hundred mile radius. I don't know why it was choosing not to land, because each time it flapped its wings, a few small trees collapsed. I crawled out from beneath the car, only to immediately regret it as a surprisingly solid wall of wind smashed into my chest, pinning me against the car. Riley and Reika got out, trying not to let the wind pick them up.

After what felt like an eternity, Suparna settled down, furling its wings as it placed one massive talon on the road, and the other a few metres away in the grass.

"What does it want?" Riley asked. "Cause if it's here for round two, I'm more than ready to give it another shot."

"No, you are _not_ fighting that thing!" Reika yelled. "First chance we get, we run!"

"Wait, something's up," I said. It wasn't really… _doing_ anything. It was just kind of standing there, staring at us. Its head kept twitching inquisitively, giving us curious glances. It hovered its beak over the car, took a few gentle pecks at it (which poked giant sized holes in the roof) then finally resettled, peering down at us curiously. "I don't think it wants to hurt us."

"Are you kidding me?!" Riley asked. "That thing dragged me halfway across the countryside."

"Yeah, but has it ever hurt any of us? If it wanted to, it could flatten us in a second, but it always came to us looking for something. Maybe it's looking for something again?"

"Well I'm not sparing it any more of our food, that's for sure," Riley declared. The look in her eyes was kind of scary. I made a mental note to myself to never let Riley be in charge of anything diplomatic. Especially when she was hungry.

"Hey, don't you have some kind of spirit that can speak monster or something?" Reika asked.

"No, for all we know, this thing might not even be capable of speech!" Compared to the day before, Suparna seemed pretty friendly. It even sat down right in the middle of the road, lowering its giant head until it was close enough to touch. It stared right into my eyes, like it was checking for something. Nervous, was a curious understatement to describe how I felt. I gulped and tried my best to smile. It looked like its eye was going to swallow me up, and I was never going to escape.

Suddenly, I felt like there were a thousand bells clanging inside my head. My vision flashed and swam with a whole array of psychedelic colours, and what little I could see was swimming before my eyes. Then, it was like somebody replaced my eyes with an old fashioned cinema reel, complete with the clicking of an old projector and sepia tones. It was as if I had been transported to a completely different time and place.

Instead of the infinite road and never ending hills, I was in the middle of what looked like a worn down apartment building, a torn up curtain and window staring me back from the other side of the room. I tried peering outside, but it was hard to see much further than the set of heavy bars that trapped me anyway. I tried moving, but I was frozen solid. Then, against my will, I leaned over. I looked down at my toes… no… at a weird pair of talons where my toes should have been, and at the comic book between them.

I'd never heard of it, or seen anything like it, but it was titled "The Adventures of Garuda, Volume Seven: The Pit of Nāga" and had this weird hero on it who looked like a feathered Captain Falcon. There were other books strewn randomly around the cage. I flicked through them with my talon. The text didn't look Greek, let alone European. Suddenly, there was a loud clatter of metal and a sharp shout. I couldn't explain it, but I felt inexplicable dread at the sound as my blood ran colder than the metal of my cage.

I looked up slowly to see a tall, and rather disorderly man lumbering towards me. I knew a drunk when I saw one, and this guy definitely needed to put down his flask and take a nap. And probably a shower. He cursed loudly as he stumbled over his own feet, pushing himself back up again.

"Hey there, little birdie," he growled under his breath. His dark hair looked matted and oily, and it probably needed washing. His teeth were yellowed and his face had unnatural spots on it. He gave me a smile that was as crooked as his teeth, and got back onto his swaying feet. "Why can't you hurry and grow bigger, eh? I'm gonna need you to get my power back… to get back at those blasted Greeks… I can't have you growing up to be a runt, now can I? Eh?"

I opened my mouth, and squawked forlornly. I sounded completely pathetic (and completely ridiculous) but it didn't seem like the old man cared much. He gripped the cage tightly, his knuckles turning white as he shook it, my whole body rattling and banging all over the cage.

" _Do I look like I care about what you think?!_ You're nothing more than my pet, and what's more, you're going to get me greatness, aren't ya? And don't even _try_ escaping from me, lest you want your wings clipped!" That seemed to do the trick, as I shut up completely, frozen in horror at the thought of losing my flight. The man smiled. "There's a good birdie, eh? After all, you shouldn't be complaining anyway, right? It's your fault that you're in this mess." I glowered at him. I guess I didn't really care _whose_ fault it was, this was injustice. He leaned closer to the bars. I was tempted to peck out his eye, but I remembered that for a drunk, he could move pretty fast. There was no way it would end well for me.

With him up in my face like that, I could see that his skin had an unhealthy purple tint to it, and it looked really abrasive, like instead of skin he was covered in leather. He hissed at me, just like a cat or a snake, and then looked down at the comics at my feet. He grew an amused smirk on his face.

"You're still reading those stupid comics, huh? You want to be a 'hero of justice' like this guy here, huh?" He pointed at the Captain Falcon look-alike in my comic. "Let me tell you something kid. Superheroes are just a lie that grown – ups tell you, hoping you'll become a loyal and just servant of society, that you'll never think and wise – up, never realise that the only person that matters, is number one." He pointed a thumb at his own chest as he said it. "I bet if you actually met Garuda, he wouldn't be running around in spandex. I bet he'd squash you flat for thinking you're above the gods."

I squawked angrily. I hated it when he talked as if he knew everything and everyone. What did he know? He stepped away from the cage and took a swig from the flask in his hand. He tottered slightly, like he took a bit too much.

"But I know what you're like. You're going to try anyway. But you'll never be a hero so long as I've got you here. So you better grow quick. Get big, get strong, and help me on my mission. Go on a quest, kill the villains, make me a king, and maybe then, you'll be regarded as a hero." As he staggered away, my vision started swimming again. Before I knew it, I was standing back in the middle of the road.

I blinked rapidly, and then collapsed onto my rear. I felt like I'd forgotten what it was like to not have wings and own human shoes. Riley yelped and Reika had seemingly teleported to my side.

"I knew it, this thing wants a fight!" Riley roared. Her gauntlets had appeared around her fists already.

"No! No, no, don't do that!" I yelled. It looked like all the orders to _not_ fight were getting to her as she reluctantly lowered her fists. I wondered if all kids of Ares were this trigger happy, and wondered how appropriate she would look holding my shotgun.

"Zach, what happened?" Reika asked.

"It was like… like Suparna was showing me stuff in my head… I think they were memories from Suparna's past. Well, not just seeing them, it's like I was living them, feeling what he was feeling. I think I get him a bit better. He was in captivity, caged up by some weird guy, but the whole time he just wanted to break out, become a hero, that kind of thing. I don't know how he escaped, but at some point he ended up working for the Scythian Dracaena. He must have thought they could make him a hero somehow."

"Well they were a reliable bunch, weren't they?" Riley said. She was still glaring at Suparna.

"Look, just cool off, alright?" I suggested. "Suparna's probably here to thank us for getting rid of the Dracaena. I guess we terminated whatever contract they had with each other. He wants to come with us as repayment."

"Well, I'm glad he's so grateful," Riley said, "but what're we meant to do with him? We can't exactly feed the guy. He's massive! It would take a whole lake just to give him a glass of water."

"Oh relax, we'll cross that bridge when we get there, right?" Reika asked. "As far as I can tell, this guy's our ticket west, right?"

I furrowed my brow as I stared at Suparna. No matter what I did, feeding this guy wouldn't be easy. "Looks like I don't have a choice," I finally said, resigned to it. I pulled out my hunting journal from the tattered remains of my trench coat, taking out the pencil that came with it. "Suparna, I've seen your memories. You're pretty smart, aren't you?" I asked as I sharpened the pencil with a cracked steel sharpener I had in my pocket. "Then you should probably know what I'm going to ask of you next." I turned to a blank page and stepped far enough away from him that I could see most of him at once. I sat down on the road and started sketching him out.

"Uh, Zach? What are you doing?" Riley asked.

"Just wait, you're distracting me," I said as I continued drawing him. Suparna seemed to get it, even posing for me with his massive wings outspread. It took me roughly twenty minutes to get a decent sketch of him. Reika and Riley kept on looking over my shoulder at my work, but none of them said anything (or at least to me, they both retreated to do their own thing). I could add the details later, for now, all that mattered was getting something that at least looked like Suparna.

On the opposite page, I started to write down some info on him: where I found him, his hunting ground (the ME A T restaurant), what I knew about his mythology, and his size roughly. When I was done, I bit down hard on my thumb until blood gushed from the wound. I planted my bloody thumb on the page, and proceeded to draw a sigil onto it.

"Hey, Zach," Reika began. She didn't need to say anything else for me to know I was really starting to freak her out. I couldn't blame her, I really didn't like this whole devil summoning thing either, but if I wanted to keep this guy well fed, then we would need to forge a contract. After finishing the seal, I pulled out the Megiddo Circuit, opened it up, and placed it next to the book on the floor. I looked up at Suparna.

"Avis, ordinem ventum," I chanted, "audi vocem meam, et accipe sanguinem meum!" Reika and Riley's demigod brains would probably be whirring to figure out what I just said, but from what I knew, they weren't that good at Latin. Compared to them, my shoddy Latin was that of a master linguist thanks to Mom. I'd had enough of it drilled into me by Mom that I didn't need a big dusty tome for it. I'd basically said: _Heed my calling, accept my blood, avian of the wind order_ , or something like that.

Suparna dipped his head in approval. Already I could feel the winds around us sifting gently, the ominous calm before the storm. I felt a tugging sensation inside my belly, like there was wind billowing in my insides. I could feel the wind inside me and everything outside: the thick manes of the trees around me, the leafy teardrops they shed, the rough skin of the dirt and coarse scabs of the tarmac. The feeling of the wind running its fingers through Riley's hair, the slow, measured, and all too human breaths Reika took, sucking my breath away and into her own lungs. Being everywhere and nowhere at the same time… it was trippy as hell, and kind of creepy. Any longer, and who knows what would have happened to me, but I had to force myself to snap out of it, shaking my head to chase away the daze.

I looked down at my journal and the Megiddo Circuit. The Circuit was glowing white hot, vibrating violently on the ground as it registered Suparna's tremendous force, and my book was hovering a few centimetres off the ground before falling gently again, courteously closing itself. I took both of them and stood up again, still a little bit disoriented from the feeling of having the wind flowing around inside my head.

"Zach, what was that?" Riley asked.

"I forged a contract with Suparna," I replied. "The same way I've got a contract with Nekomata or Ventus. Suparna isn't registered in the Megiddo Circuit, so I had to use a more traditional Latin incantation. It's a good thing the Megiddo Circuit doubles as a catalyst, or else I don't know what I would have done."

"Do hunters normally do stuff like that?"

"Pacts with demons? No… most hunters are completely against that kind of stuff. But this is my weapon, I might as well use its full powers, right? Plus, we need Suparna's strength. Like this, I can supply him with energy if he starts feeling drained. Look, we're keeping Suparna waiting. Shall we go?" I didn't want to keep talking about this topic. I didn't like this ability either, it seriously creeped me out. Meddling with demons is the work of sorcerers and shamans, not teenagers.

I approached Suparna. I was just contemplating what kind of acrobatics I would need to perform to get up his leg when Suparna lowered his head until I could reach up and climb onto his neck. I clambered up, clinging to feathers where I could so that I wouldn't fall. Seating myself on top of his neck, it actually felt really comfy.

The feathers were like gigantic blankets that wrapped themselves around me. They felt a little bit on the itchy side, but the sacrifice was worth it. I looked down at the others, beckoning them to climb up.

After a short, panicked climb, they made it up to the top of his neck, arranging themselves in a line going behind me in the bird's plumage. Reika was directly behind me, with Riley just behind her. Suparna spread his massive wings, squawking loudly as he flapped them, slowly at first, the wind blowing up great gusts of dust and leaves. The flapping sounded more like a loud, though slightly muffled thumping than anything. Then, Suparna flexed his knees, his wingbeats getting stronger. He launched himself from the ground, a tiny tornado billowing around us temporarily before he took to the skies, leaving the road, and the destroyed car behind.

I clutched Suparna's feathers desperately, trying not to think about falling to my doom off his back. I could feel my body getting pressed down into Suparna's neck, the G-force threatening to completely flatten my body. Suparna seemed to remember that he had passengers, and didn't rise any higher vertically, instead, easing himself up as he flew straight ahead at a gentle climb.

I've only ever flown in a plane once in my life, but this was nothing like that. The sheer speed that Suparna was moving at was a lot like take off, but I could actually feel the wind billowing around me as we rose through the air. I didn't feel that much if I buried myself in the feathers, but why would I do that and take away all the sensations of the sky?

I leaned over to my left a little, peering down at the ground below me. Trees and cars were now tiny specks in the ground below. I looked around me and all I could see was clear blue sky, a giant sea that only we could sail. The steady beating of Suparna's wings was a welcome change to the expected thrum of a car engine. We were still rising higher, the ground getting further from us as the clouds got closer, and I looked up, waiting for the moment when we would rise above them.

I heard a small yelp, and felt a pair of arms wrap themselves around my waist and grip me tightly, refusing to let go. For a moment, I panicked, not really sure why there was this sudden need to restrain me in my position on Suparna's back. I turned my head around so I could just barely see Reika in the corner of my eye, holding on for dear life, a _very_ concerned expression on her face.

"What's the matter?" I said. "Don't like heights?"

"I'm fine with heights!" she yelled back. "Just… not _this_ high. And not while I'm conscious!"

"Haven't you ridden on Suparna before?"

"That was an emergency! And I was passed out when I did that!" I shook my head and looked ahead again. I have to admit, it was a little bit hard to concentrate on anything with a girl clutching me from behind, and I was just glad that nobody could see my face going red. I tried not to think too hard on it, and instead turned my attention to the flock of birds to my right. They looked like swans, or something similar. I tugged at Suparna's feathers and pointed towards them.

"Suparna, let's go that side!" I yelled. Normally there was a very faint mental link between my monsters and I so they could hear my commands in their heads, but it was very faint and rarely worked, and I'd only just forged a contract with Suparna, so speaking was the best bet. He got the idea, banking towards the flock. Reika squealed, squeezing the air out of me while Riley laughed. I wouldn't have been surprised if Riley had let go and was waving her hands in the air. That girl worried me.

The birds were flying in a huge V shaped formation, as if they were one bird. And of course, Suparna decided to casually dip his head up between them, looking around and squawking excitedly. I almost expected them to all scatter in fright, but they didn't seem to mind. Maybe they were his friends?

I gazed in wonder at a bird that was hovering by my head. It almost looked close enough to touch. I'd heard somewhere that swans were incredibly aggressive so I didn't dare, but I could see Riley stretching her fingers out in wonder. Suparna dipped slightly, then rose higher into the sky, leaving the rest of the flock behind (and scattering him with the sheer force of his wings). The higher we rose, the colder the air got, and I was doubly thankful for Suparna's warm feathers that covered me, even if they made it a bit harder to see.

He banked to his left this time, and I could see a lake far below us. I wondered what the other mortals down below would see. I thought Suparna was a UFO, then a commercial jet liner, but who knows what they saw, just a really big bird? Reika waved meekly at them, and when I turned to see her, she had a nervous, very forced smile on her face.

Suparna rose once again, and this time I could see we were rushing up to meet the clouds. Before I knew it, we were inside one. I'm not sure what I was expecting to feel (maybe like I was touching candy floss?) but it wasn't that different to the rest of the rather cold air around me. The world around me had turned white and misty, as if I were in the middle of a dense fog. I stretched my hand out into the air, feeling the moisture gathering on my arm.

We broke the surface, my head poking out the top of the cloud. My feelings of elation were nigh on indescribable as I observed the white, fluffy sea around me, the gentle waves of cloud rolling around us as we broke through them like a massive sky ship.

Suparna was no longer beating his wings, probably for fear of dispelling the clouds altogether, and instead was soaring and gliding through the air, the tip of his right wing scraping the top of the cloud, cleaving a thin chasm through the ball of fluff. This was the closest that any of us would ever get to walking on cloud, and my gut felt giddy in excitement as I looked around us. In the distance, I could see a large commercial plane, still far above us as it appeared and disappeared from view behind the higher levels of cloud.

"It's beautiful, Riley said in awe, and I had to agree with her. As far as the eye could see, it was a large white canvas, the sheets of cloud occasionally getting restless and pushing themselves up in waves, rising with streams of warm air. Above us was another white ceiling, another layer that was still beyond us, and all around oddly shaped twisting pillars.

As Suparna turned, soaring higher in circles, I stared back the way we came. There was a bright flash of light, temporarily blinding me as I shielded my eyes before my eyes adjusted. The sun was still rising in the mid – morning sky, but the further in that direction I looked, the more the clouds were getting tinted in pale pinks and crisp oranges.

"Yeah… it's beautiful," I agreed, the view taking my breath away. A second wave of constriction reminded me that Reika was clutching tight, cowering away from it. She was now pretty much glued to my back, her face buried in my coat, refusing to look away.

"Oh come on Reika, you're missing this!" Riley said. "This is a once – in – a – lifetime view!"

"No!" she shouted, her voice a little muffled under the cloth and feathers. "If I look down, my arms will turn to jelly, and I'll slip off and die!"

"Oh come on, you know I'll catch you!"

She didn't care, clutching me tighter. Suparna rose a little higher, now turning back on course and beating his wings occasionally. Every time they moved, the clouds nearby all shifted around, like they were punched out of their peaceful drifting. It made me a little sad to know that we were disrupting them like that, but it was better than dropping out of the sky.

"Hey, check out that cloud!" Riley yelled, leaning over Reika and pointing so I could just barely see her hand. I followed her arm and saw what looked like a gigantic four leafed clover, slowly warping itself.

"Hey, what about that one?" I said, spotting a fleecy ball to my right. "It looks a bit like cotton candy."

"They _all_ look like cotton candy, Zach!"

"Yeah, you're right… maybe a marshmallow? Yeah, it's definitely a marshmallow!" Riley laughed incredulously.

"A marshmallow? Really? Better like next time, mallow head!"

"Fine then, that guy's like a big ol' giraffe, over there."

"Either that, or it's the world's weirdest cricket bat! Hey, check out that guy, it's like a big bear!"

"Yeah, a bear with six legs! What about that one? It looks like a Jack Frost!"

"Oh my gods, it really does! It's waving and everything!" We went on like this for five minutes, pointing out all the weird shapes that drifted through the sky, and then another five just admiring the scenery when I started yawning.

"What's the matter?" Riley asked. "You tired or something?"

"Nah, it's nothing… it just feels hard to breath all of a sudden," I replied.

"I knew it, we're all gonna die!" Reika said, trembling slightly.

"It's probably because of how high up we are," Riley suggested. "The air here must be super thin and hard to breath. Zach, it's getting dangerous. Let's go down a bit." Suparna dipped his head a little as he went for a shallow dive, staying just high enough that we were above the clouds, out of sight of everyone below, but low enough that we could still breath.

Like that, we spent the rest of the journey admiring the scenery as we soared through the sky, talking and commenting on things we noticed either in the sky or on the ground below. Sometimes, we would dip beneath the canopy of clouds and observe the world below, but we were moving pretty fast, and we didn't want to get too low thanks to all the damage Suparna would do.

When we weren't talking, we were sat in silence, just drinking in the atmosphere. Occasionally, one of us would go to sleep, and we always alternated it so that the other two would be awake, in case we slid off Suparna's back. That didn't seem likely though, Suparna's feathers were really strong and secure. It's almost like his neck was meant to have humans riding on it. I stayed awake anyway. If the Megiddo Circuit malfunctioned and Suparna disappeared, I wanted to make sure I was awake to fix it.

It took almost five hours before Suparna started to descend, slowly to get us used to the change in altitude. I looked down to see a vast expanse of bone – dry desert, stretching in a vast expanse of sand coloured sea and rocky crevices. Totally different to the almost heavenly paradise that we had been flying through. It was almost like we had descended from Heaven to the jaws of Hell. In the distance, I could see a tiny town, hidden amongst the rocks and sand. It looked like it was trying to blend in with the desert, waiting for some unknown prey to rear its head from either the sand or the sky.

"Let's try and stay away from the people," I said, steering Suparna away from the town. "In the middle of Nevada, so close to Area 51, I _really_ don't want to know what they would see."

"Can't you check?" Riley asked. "All you've got to do is remove your goggles and you'll know, right?" Zach shook his head.

"Wouldn't work. Us mortals all see different things. Besides, after riding on his back for so long, I don't think I could see him as anything other than an oversized parrot. Hey, Suparna, why don't we land over there? That way it won't be too long a walk before we can get ourselves some food."

Suparna squawked in confirmation, heading for a small plateau in the distance. It would probably take another hour or two of walking to get to the town, but it would still be easier than explaining how we were miraculously dropped from the sky. I just hoped that nobody was looking up as we finally landed, Suparna's wings kicking up a massive dust storm before he finally hit the ground with a loud thud, laying his wings to rest.

He lowered his head so it would be easier for us to clamber off, though I still ended up tripping and falling onto my face. Reika was no better, her legs completely failing her as she collapsed on her rear whilst Riley just leaped off and made a perfect landing.

"Well guys, looks like this is our stop," I said, gesturing around at the abundance of nothing. "Welcome to the new frontier!"

"Yeah, let us go out and conquer dust devils," Riley laughed. "Quit the melodrama and let's go! The sooner we get to a town, the sooner we can get some food!"

"Wait, is Suparna okay?" Reika asked as she stood up again. "He just travelled across the whole country with us on his back. Do your monsters even eat?"

"Don't worry, all he should need is a little bit of rest," I said, pointing the Megiddo Circuit at him. He shut his eyes in exhaustion before an intense flash of lightning – like light enveloped him, Suparna disappearing in a manner of seconds. "They do eat, but they do that in their own time, and when I summon them, they run off of my own energy."

"Oh, well that changes the question then, are _you_ okay?!"

"Relax, it's not much. Suparna's still doing most of the work. So stop worrying and let's go! The more we wait, the hungrier I get!" Reika shrugged, and then together, we headed towards the town in the distance.

 **A/N: I do not know Latin. Latin is far beyond my understanding, so I have to say thanks to** _ **ArthM**_ **for helping me out with the translation of Zach's incantation. Without his advice it would have become a horrible gooey Google Translate mess! I also say go check out his fics, he's really good! I recommend** _ **Looking for Something to Do**_ **, but I found him through** _ **Saying No to Nouns**_ **and really enjoyed that one. Anyway, I'm out!**


	9. STYX AND STONES, DIVINITY BONES (1)

**This chapter is gonna play out a little bit differently to the other ones. You'll get what I mean instantly. I'm curious to see how well this chapter will be taken. Anyway, enjoy!**

 **CHAPTER 9: STYX AND STONES, DIVINITY BONES (1)**

Hades was never known to have a cheerful disposition. In fact, some would claim he was quite a serious character. A dark and grim person who was always serious about his work, even when that entailed reaping the souls of the damned. This wasn't entirely true (well, the part about the souls of the damned was), he was just tired, that's all. Whenever things were going wrong and he was needed, he was hailed as a hero, a champion even, by his siblings. But as soon as the trouble passed, who got all the glory? Who was hailed as the saviour of the gods? His younger brother Zeus, that was who.

Not that he cared anyway. Running Olympus did not look like a fun pastime. Not enough pay for all the responsibility. Plus, dealing with those who are rebellious. At least with the undead, he knew that he had complete and total fealty. He _literally_ owned all of their souls. Contracts signed in their own blood and everything.

He observed some of those very same denizens of the underworld. Two lines of soldiers were stood, leading towards the door at the opposite end of his throne room. In recent years, he had acquired a lot of soldiers who used guns. It was very strange to get used to their new way of fighting, but the discipline hadn't changed. Even in death, it seemed the rigour and training had been hammered into their bones.

This was one of his very rare moments of peace and quiet. He didn't have to sort through the underworld's increasing space problem, and his resources were being budgeted properly. There was still the pesky little problem of monsters and the dead escaping from the underworld, though there have always been one or two breakouts. Like that door Orpheus left open. Hades still hadn't found a way to seal it, or even where it was for that matter. Besides, it kept the heroes on their toes. They were all spoilt brats that didn't know true suffering. There were probably mortals who had more backbone.

He stood up from his bone throne as he lamented the loss of courage in the modern heroes. He might as well take a walk, enjoy what little air there was to breathe. Maybe visit the Fields of Punishment? It had been a while since he had shown his face in hell anyway, and he heard that there were some rare herbs that only grew there. Perhaps they would make a somewhat palatable meal for once if Nico ever decided to stop by. Maybe for permanent residence.

It was when his foot left the throne room and he started admiring the apocalyptic artwork on the walls that he began to feel a tugging in his gut. The feeling of somebody calling upon his dark powers. This wasn't unusual. Once in a while, there was a human that just so happened to stumble upon an ancient tome that taught them how to summon the spirit of death. That wasn't a problem, just a mild inconvenience. He would send out an avatar and find some way to "bless" them violently for rudely interrupting his break. But this was different.

He could feel his whole body being drawn towards it, his very being and essence. It was like somebody was calling the very spirit of death itself. He didn't have long. He clutched his chest in pain, letting out a roar as he was engulfed in black flames, the world around him vanishing.

When he came to, he was standing atop an enormous skyscraper. The air was chilly, and there was more light from the buildings and street below than there was from the moon and stars above. Not that there were many of those. He recognised those streets. He was looking down at the streets of Las Vegas, and from the top of the tallest building in sin city, _The Palazzo_ hotel and casino.

What unnatural force of nature would _dare_ to pull the lord of the dead from his own home? He felt a body tackle him from behind, nearly sending him careening off the side of the building.

"Hiya Hades!" a female voice shrieked into his ear before he could react and blast the intruder off of him. He let out a sigh, trying his best to pry the woman's fingers off of his neck. He should have known it would be her. Had that been anybody else, they would already be joining his undead minions in Tartarus.

"Oh, it's just you," he mumbled as he got one hand off, only to find it reattach itself with twice the vigour.

"Oh come on, you know you missed me!" He could feel the big smile coming off of her face, and he felt more irritated the longer it stayed there. Finally, with a bit of an effort, he managed to get her off and turned around to face her.

He was staring at a young woman with large frizzy hair and golden brown skin. She was dressed in a flowing dress and platform shoes. The dress seemed to change colours right before his eyes. One moment it was a bright red, the next, it was yellow, already in the process of turning peach. Bone necklaces hung off of her neck, with a skull carved from silver in the centre. Her eyes were the radiant gold of the sun itself, and her smile was warm to look at. Overall, her presence irritated him.

"What do you want, Oya?" he asked, clearly not amused at her kidnapping trick.

"Oh come on, what if I'm just here to say hi?" she asked. "After all, we're basically partners, aren't we?"

"More like rivals. You better not have called me for something small and insignificant." She folded her arms and glowered at him.

"Really, you think that _I_ , the deity of the River Niger, powerful and awe – inspiring Orisha of thunder and lightning, master of hurricanes, clairvoyant spirit of death and rebirth, would cross not one, but _two_ continents, just to say hello?"

"The last time you summoned me was to complain about your husband, Shango. And the time before that was to take a visit to a carnival. And many times before that, you wished to meet that insatiable demigod, Jimi Hendrix, and hoped that I would be able to arrange it. And the time before that…."

"Okay, okay, I get the idea. Sheesh, way to be a buzzkill…." She sauntered over to the edge of the building, clutching the railing as she peered over the edge to observe the sea of lights below her. Hades went over to join her, joining his gaze with her own. "But man, I can never get enough of the view here. Sin city looks as pretty as a promise, with all the funny little mortals running around thinking they own the place. They don't even know that their next door neighbour is the Lord of the Dead!"

"If you're interrupting my break just to admire what I already own, then I might as well go back now." Hades turned around when he felt a hand grab his arm, accompanied by the sound of bangles clanging together as it did so. They looked like they were made of bones, and there was even a human molar among them.

"Wait! I'm not just here to waste your time! I promise! Styx and everything, or whatever weird oaths you guys make!" Hades rolled his eyes. Even his tolerance of her had a limit. It was almost unfair that somebody so powerful had such an enthusiastic personality.

"Okay then, why have you called me?"

"Well, it's got to do with those holes to the underworld…."

"Oh yes, thanks for enlightening me about something I _already know_." Now it was Oya's turn to get angry, the sound of thunder rumbling overhead.

"Just listen for a second! You think it's easy crossing into Greek borders without getting spotted? I'm telling you this because it's _important_ , and you're the only one here I can trust. So just let me finish, alright?" Hades relented with an exhausted sigh. If it was working Oya up so much, then he at least had a duty to listen as a fellow patron of death, at least if it would help to calm her down.

"Okay, portals in and out of the underworld. Not too strange. What about it?"

"Well, I've been trying to trace them. They aren't just more frequent than normal, they're more… focussed. Like, normally there's a couple of points where darkness can leak from, like Yomotsu Hirasaka in Japan, or your own door under the DOA recording studios. Sure, there's a few small time haunted locations and stuff, but nothing major, but now there's big areas that are just opening up with all kinds of nasties. Hauntings and monster sightings galore."

"Undead everywhere. Sounds like a paradise for Nico," Hades said with a smirk.

"Most people would disagree, and for good reason too. These spots are imbalanced. Whatever natural sources of magic that were in the area have been drained. Dozmary Pool in Cornwall is looking a heck of a lot less magical, with ghosts frequently visiting our dear friend the ghost of Tregeagle. The Devil's Gate in Wyoming is looking a little bit more rusty too. Not to mention the wailing of the Egyptians in the Red Sea has gotten especially loud in recent years. Heck, now we're on the topic of Egypt, last time I went there, there were a lot more people registering with unnatural ESP abilities. Imagine humans that can use spiritual powers on their own. That's the power of a Stand, and there's a lot more Stand users there. It's not good news."

"Okay, I'm still not seeing your point."

"My _point_ , is that for all of this to happen, the magic sources that were in those areas had to have gone missing. I tossed around a few drachmas and a wayward hex bag in the right places, and I've been able to trace a lot of them. Excalibur was plucked from Avalon right through the Dozmary Pool, part of the railing in the Wyoming Devil's Trap is gone too. Whatever treasures left over from the Pharaoh have been stolen from the Red Sea, just for good measure. Stuff is being filched, and when it is, they leave a gap… a kind of vacuum, you could say. And that vacuum attracts spirits and ghouls to fill it. It can even suck them out from across worlds, punching holes in the underworld to let them out."

Hades thought about it for a bit. It was fine for a few things to go missing, but who was capable of stealing Excalibur? For that matter, who could see through the mist and find the treasures inside the Red Sea? As far as mortals are concerned, that event with Moses parting the Red Sea never happened, so nobody should be able to find all the Egyptian items that were lost beneath it. For all of this to happen at the same time? And across different cultures and theologies? It was too strange.

"Okay, I'm starting to see what you're getting at. But this isn't something you had to tell me about. I'm lord of the dead, not of discount trinkets. There's not much I can do here." Oya seemed to have become considerably less cheerful, like she was trying to mentally check off a list of things she needed to tell him, and until she said it all she would have to focus.

"I guess, but you know me. What I'm telling you now… this is child's play. Anybody could have traced that. My connections told me more."

Her connections never ceased to amaze Hades. Where the Olympians just barely held dominion over North America, this one lone goddess seemed to have linked with the entire world. What was her secret? He forced himself to focus as she continued speaking.

"There was one more missing magic spot that scared me. And that was around Mt Sinai, in Egypt. There was a really weird magical gulf right in the middle of it, like somebody took something big. _Real_ big. Actually, while all of these ones were pretty recent, this magic spot has actually been missing for a long time now. I only recently discovered it."

"So it went missing _before_ you started checking out these missing magic sources, right? So, how did you find it? If it's always been missing, then it would almost be a normal part of the environment, right?"

"Simple. I found out about it because I found out where that one went." Oya paused to catch her breath. She looked tired all of a sudden. It was then when Hades started to wonder when she'd been doing all of this work. If he remembered her mythos correctly, she had a lot of responsibility. The time it must have taken to do her job on top of this must have been phenomenal. But more importantly, he didn't like the way she paused like that. He looked her right in her eyes, trying not to look away from the intense light.

"Oya. What got taken from Mt Sinai?" Her eyes lit up briefly before the light started dying down. She bit her lip nervously.

"Have you ever heard of Samael's tablet? Or perhaps you know it better as 'The Ten Commandments' or something similar?"

"Of course. Everybody knows that-" He stopped mid – sentence. The gravity of the situation was finally starting to dawn on him. He could feel his muscles trembling involuntarily. He let go of the railing and tried to force himself to calm down and bury his fear, clenching his fists tightly. His palms stung as his nails dug into them, golden ichor dribbling out of the open wounds. "Where are the pieces?"

"You should really watch your domain better, Hades," she reprimanded. "They've been right under your nose for a while now. What do you think has been happening at those shady deals outside Paradise Ranch, drug deals? Go there, and that's where you'll find them."

"But how did they get here? And what happened to Mettatron? I thought he was watching them."

"Hell if I know, pun not intended, and maybe Mettatron's off duty, cashing in on his vacation days or something. Either way, he's not there now. And right now, the parts of the tablet are here in Nevada. They aren't live yet, but do we want to wait for that to change?" Hades shook his head. He wasn't ready for another war. It felt like they'd just gotten out of the last one. And this time, the gods wouldn't be allowed to sit idly by the side. He had to act fast, and stop the fight before it started.

"Oya… how did you find all of this out?" She winked at him as she stepped away from the railing.

"A lady's got to have _some_ secrets in this cruel, misogynistic world." The wind started to pick up as she walked further away from the edge. Hades followed after, his mind consumed in thought.

"Are you going to return?" She shrugged her shoulders.

"Depends on how well the next few weeks play out. Anyway, you'll see more of me whether you like it or not. But at the end of the day, this isn't my domain. America is up to you guys. I can't help you from Nigeria or Cuba, just give you information."

"I wouldn't have it any other way. This is our fight now."

"Well, it will become _all_ of our fights if you mess up." She looked up at the sky and held her hand up to it. The wind picked up to a horrendous gale, her dress billowing outwards like a parachute. Then, she seemed to have second thoughts, lowering her hand and turning back to face Hades. "Hey, Hades, I have a favour to ask you…."

"I knew you'd end up asking for something inconvenient," he moaned.

"Aw shucks, you know me too well."

"That's not a good thing!"

"Well… it's to do with my son."

"I thought you had only daughters? Around nine of them."

"No, not my godly kids… a demigod one." Hades's eyebrows raised in surprise.

"Orishas have demigod children? That's… surprising…."

"Hey, you can't judge me! Don't you have three kids of your own?"

"Yes, but I'm an Olympian, it's almost expected. I didn't expect that from an Orisha though."

"Shut up! It's not common, but it happens once in a while. The second Yoruba chief was a demigod even. Look, I've got a demigod kid, from this mortal I met in Malawi."

"Malawi? Where's-"

"Don't even!" He silenced himself before she could get mad. She sucked in her breath, and continued. "He's currently living here. I didn't direct him to Camp Jupiter or Half – Blood because he's not a western demigod, but things are getting more dangerous. He's going to need more than his own wits to survive in this world now. He needs training and guidance."

"He's not Greek. He's not even Roman. It's going to be hard to get him in."

"I know, I know I'm asking a lot, but I at least want him to have a fighting chance. I can't interfere with him. I haven't even _seen_ him since he was a baby. Can you believe it? I can't just let him die like that. He needs to be around others with gifts… others like himself."

"If you need him trained, why not send him to Camp Jupiter? They are much more willing to accept any demigod as long as they can fight, and their training… it puts Camp Half – Blood to shame."

"I know, but then he'll be even more distant from me. You know that I'm not on as good terms with your… _other half_."

"It doesn't change the fact that he's going to struggle fitting in there."

"It's better than out here. You can make something up. Lie that he's somebody else's. I don't know, think of _something_." He almost expected her to say please at this point, something he never thought he would hear from a god, especially not Oya. She was serious about this. Once he took a look in her pleading eyes, even he felt some sympathy. Not much though. At the end of the day, it was only because he knew the favour would come in handy later. Oya was a good person to have on your side. That, and she was his friend. Sneaky and a king of liars, he at least had the honour not to betray those loyal to him.

"I'll see what I can do." A smile stretched across her face, her whole body seemingly vibrating with glee. She leaped on him, wrapping her arms around him in a crushing bear hug.

"Yes! Thank you, thank you, _thank_ you!"

"Let go of me you insufferable woman! You're crushing me!" Obviously, she didn't listen, crushing him all the tighter. Hades was starting to wonder if he was going to regret the decision, or if Oya would ever let go, when she abruptly unhanded him, stepping backwards.

"Look after the kid. He's a real live wire, but he doesn't know what he's doing."

"That's not my job, I'm just there to get him in." She conceded, looking back up at the sky as she raised her arm.

"Keep in touch, I'd get bored without you around," she said.

"Don't get destroyed. I'd hate to deal with underworld traffic alone." She laughed as the wind seemed to tear her into shreds, her body vanishing into it. Her laughter was left behind, getting carried by along by the wind as it faded out.

Hades let out a sigh of relief. She was interesting to talk to, but she tired him out so much that it wasn't funny. He turned back to look out at the lights below him, and scanned the desert for sources of power. Sure enough, he could feel something. It was pretty faint: a few monsters, some exceptionally strong mortals, three demigod, and that mortal boy that Chiron told him about. There was fire, blood, and gunpowder. Lots of it. He had work to do.

 **And thus, the ball's rolling with that one. You wanna know what it was about the Ten Commandments that Hades has realised? Or how they even tie into this? A better question might be what exactly it was that Hades sensed down there. Only time, and the next chapter, will tell. So stay engaged for the next one on Monday!**


	10. WE GET EXTREME SUNTANS

**I try to make it a policy to reply to my reviews. If I can't do it by PM, I'll reply here. So, to the anon reviewer and their super enthusiastic review:**

 **Wow, thanks a bunch! I'm glad that you're enjoying this so much! Glad to see you're enjoying the little Supernatural feel and references here and there, though its still mainly a Percy Jackson story. Just thought it would show how mortal 'heroes' would take the magical world that Half - Bloods would be used to already. There's also nods to other stuff if you can spot them though. The most obvious one is the SMT Devil Survivor summoning COMP (The Megiddo Circuit as its called here since technically they're completely unrelated). I dropped a JoJo's Bizarre Adventures reference in the last chapter too, and you can expect a whole lot more of them throughout the story. Some of them will be pretty obscure and easy to miss, but it's fun to hunt them. On an unrelated note, try to contain your enthusiasm though, we've got kids on the site, eh mate?**

 **With that out of the way, let the chapter commence!**

 **CHAPTER 10: WE GET EXTREME SUNTANS (Riley's thoughts)**

 ***A few hours prior to Hades' meeting***

The journey through the Nevada desert was not a fun one, I can tell you that. Dehydration and exhaustion were our two greatest enemies as we trekked through the parched sands, and I was just hoping that the natural wildlife wouldn't completely remove us from its domain. Toxic scorpions, deadly rattlesnakes, and poisonous lizards were probably eyeing us suspiciously as we clambered over rocks. Of course, I didn't see any of them. If they were that easy to spot, then they wouldn't be such deadly hunters.

After a gruelling two hour journey, we finally stepped foot onto a long, straight road, and could spy civilisation. I could feel the strange stares that people were giving us as we stepped onto it with our haggard appearance.

Zach's trench coat was torn in too many places, and I only hoped the mist our own weapons gave off was enough to hide the shotgun that was visible through the cloth. As for Reika and I, we probably still looked and smelled slightly singed from that fire demon we met earlier. Sure enough, we looked like a strange bunch, and the disapproving glares were getting on my nerves.

"So, what's our next plan of action?" I asked. "You know, after we chow down that is." Zach pulled out his tattered book that he always seemed to carry around.

"Okay, according to Mom's journal, if we go further south from this town, then we'll end up at Area 51. We can't enter there, that's federal government territory, but we _can_ hover around the area as long as we don't get too close. And that's where there have been shady weapons deals being done. I've got a map of their usual spots, so it shouldn't take too long to find them."

"They're trading what exactly?" Reika asked. "Celestial bronze? Imperial gold?"

"If that was the case, they wouldn't be a problem. There's nothing _really_ wrong with trading a few rare minerals like that, but we're talking stuff that can lay down serious hurt on people. From simple hex bags to heroic weapons. Noble phantasms and devil arms. Stuff that was sealed away for centuries, and for good reason."

"How did your mom even find out about this stuff anyway?" Riley asked suspiciously. Zach shook his head.

"I wish I knew. She never told me anything about it. She was hunting down a few witches lately, and she started taking me hunting with her more as well. Then, she just vanished." His expression had become more downcast, his voice lowering as he spoke. I didn't really want to question him more and make him worse, so we pressed on with our journey for food.

The reward for our hard work couldn't come soon enough, and the streets were starting to get eerily empty. Everybody was definitely actively avoiding us. There was a middle aged woman at the other side of the road walking her dog, and a boy looking at his feet with his hands dug firmly in his pockets walking towards us. He didn't seem to notice us as he bumped shoulders with Zach, almost knocking him over as he did so.

He mumbled a quick apology as he started to hurry off when Reika grabbed him by the upper arm.

"Nice try kid," she said, "but I know a pickpocket when I see one…." She was rudely interrupted as the kid violently shook her off, shoving her to the ground as he took off down the street.

"What just-" I began, but Reika ignored me as she got up and flexed her knees.

"Zach, check your stuff, what's missing?"

He patted down his pockets and coat for all his belongings, his eyes going wide as it dawned on him.

"The Megiddo Circuit! He's got it!" It took half a second before it registered in my mind, but Reika was already gone, speeding off in a swirl of dust after him.

She caught up to him in no time, swerving right in front of his path. The kid scrambled backwards in a hurry, ducking off into an alley between two dusty looking buildings. Reika shot after him.

"Riley, let's go," Zach said. I shook my head.

"No need… nobody can get away from Reika." He didn't seem to care as he sprinted after them, tearing into the alley. I shrugged my shoulders and followed him anyway.

Surprisingly, it didn't take too long before we finally found Reika, staring down the brick face of a dead end with a frown on her face.

"I couldn't catch him?" she asked in confusion.

"What? That's impossible, maybe you just missed him?" I suggested, but she was dubious.

"There's no way, he was moving that fast. Just when I almost had him, it's like he vanished…." She trailed off as she stared at the wall. She skated to the wall on her right, riding up that, then leaped off it to the offending dead end, skating up that wall until she was on the roof of the building.

We saw her highlights disappear behind the tiles of the roof, and were just left standing there awkwardly, unsure of what to do.

"Can't you track it down or something?" I asked Zach, but he shook his head.

"It's untraceable. If I had summoned a monster, then it might be able to track it for me, but I didn't expect to find a pickpocket in such an empty place…. Wait a minute, why _was_ there a pickpocket here anyway?"

Now that he'd mentioned it, I couldn't help but wonder about that myself. Pickpockets were the norm in big busy cities, but this place was pretty out there. Vegas was probably about a hundred miles away. Plus, what pickpocket tries to steal a game console?

"I'm getting a bad feeling about this," I confessed. Zach nodded in agreement, but at the speed that Reika was moving at, there wasn't much we could do anyway. We waited for about ten minutes before we finally heard the sound of skates rumbling on badly paved concrete.

We turned around to see Reika, doubled over and panting, while her right hand was holding the teenage crook by his upper arm. His arms were bound tightly to his body in rope, and her other arm was clutching the end of it.

"Got him!" she gasped. "He's… he's not normal…."

"What, and you're one to talk?" he replied. His already chestnut coloured skin was smeared with grime and dirt, and the dust on his blue jeans and hoodie revealed he hadn't had the most pleasant experience with Reika (who wears a hoodie in Nevada?) He wore a big set of red headphones around his neck. "You must have been moving at twenty miles an hour easy!"

"You find that impressive? I can do two hundred easy if you try a stunt like that again!" she yelled.

"No way I'm gonna believe that, but if you untie me, I'll give you a chance to prove it. Come on, think of it as a challenge!" He was smiling with a kind of antagonistic charm. Reika didn't even attempt to match it, just glaring at him outright. They looked like best friends already.

Zach walked up to the pair, annoyance clear in his eyes.

"Give me back my game," he said. The boy shrugged his shoulders.

"I would love to, but I'm kind of tied up at the moment." None of us were amused. Reika, still keeping one hand firm on his shoulder, chucked her end of the rope over a large pub sign above us. It landed next to me and I got the idea pretty quick, grabbing it and pulling with all my strength. The boy shot into the air with a yelp as I held him dangling in the air above us. "Oh come on guys, I know you want to hang out, but this is taking things too far, don't ya think?"

"Geez, maybe you're right?" I said. "It seems a little unfair to expect _so much_ from you when we've only just met."

"Exactly!" he exclaimed, then directed his speech to Reika. "See, she gets me. Why can't you be more like her?" Reika was fuming, and I had to step between them to calm her down. That, and hand her the rope (which she barely managed to grab without being dragged up herself).

"So, we'll play a game first. To get to know each other. It will be something like the world's loudest piñata. Except, _you're_ the piñata, and we're the players. That way we'll learn all about what colour your blood is, what you sound like in pain, _and_ we'll be able to punch the game console right out of you like candy!" His pupils dilated as he flashed her a nervous smile.

"H-hey, I'm not too good at party games you know. Besides, I bruise easily."

"Well that's not my problem, now is it?" I slammed my fist into the wall as a demonstration of my strength. I wasn't angry enough to bring out my gloves so it hurt like hell, but cracks started spreading all around the impact zone, and the crashing sound of shattering brick and splintering wood was glorious. Perfect. I tried not to let any tears of pain show in my eyes as I turned back to him. He was sweating now as he realised things weren't going to go well for him.

"Okay, okay! Just, don't hit me alright? Let me down so I can give you the Circuit!" Reika lowered the rope, sending him down to the ground. He gestured to his left with his chin. "Inside my hoodie pocket. Take it, it's yours." Zach fished for it, retrieving the blue device. He examined it closely, opening it up to check. "Can I go now?" he asked. Reika was about to let go of the rope when Zach grabbed it abruptly.

"This is just a regular DS," Zach said. "For that matter, how did you know it was called the 'Circuit' anyway?" Now the pressure was on as we all turned to face him. The sweat was running down in torrents now.

"Hey, guys, there's no need to look at me like that, eh? We can just talk this out like rational human beings…." Zach pulled out his shotgun and pointed it right at his head.

"Well you better start talking before my shotgun does. And if I don't like what I hear, then our conversation will be pretty brief."

"What?! Hey, come on kid, lighten up a little!" He pumped it, prodding his head with the gun.

"Whoa, Zach, relax," I said. "He's a scumbag, but you can't exactly blast his brains out. He's not done anything."

"What, like that creepy old man we met in the bus? I don't believe he's just a regular human. What if he's another demon and we let him get the jump on us?"

"I'm not a demon!" he screamed. "I'm a demigod, just like you guys! So there's no need to panic! And, and I can get your Megiddo Circuit back, I promise! Just give me a few days-"

"I'll give you today and that's it," Zach snarled.

"What?! But then I-" He was cut off by another not – so – gentle prod to the forehead. "Okay! I'll get it today! For reals this time!"

"And I'll accompany you, just to make sure," Zach said. "Try anything funny or try to backstab me, and I'll drag you to hell with me." The relief was plain on his face as Zach pulled away the shotgun, and he looked like he was ready to faint. Actually, the relief was clear on all of us. I didn't want to see Zach kill such a hapless looking guy. I'd never really seen this side of him before, only a few hints when he was hunting monsters. Something about it just scared me. "So, who are you?" It took a while before the boy had calmed down enough to talk normally.

"The name's Zodiac," he said. "Certified procurer of all things shiny and valuable. Demigod child of Iris."

"Wait, as in Iris, goddess of the rainbow?" Reika asked, barely concealing a chuckle.

"Yes, indulging in all things bright and colourful. Might explain my love of everything shiny. Especially money. Hey, nice necklace, can I borrow it?" I defensively clutched my camp beads, eyeing him cautiously.

"Talk less about my jewellery, and more about what you did with the Circuit," I suggested.

"Right… well, when I was running from that weird Asian chick, I deposited the Circuit already." Said 'weird Asian chick' didn't seem too happy about how she was labelled, and took over the interrogation.

"Alright, where did you deposit it? You have to have left it somewhere or with someone."

"There was this agent, some weird tall guy in a leather jacket and studded gloves. He looked like he could bench press two of me, and was wearing big black sunglasses and a weird earpiece. Oh yeah, he had a big, brassy kind of voice and a birthmark on his left cheek."

"That's… surprisingly descriptive."

"What can I say? I don't forget the faces of people who promised to pay me. And I was in the process of getting my cash too when you dived through the window and interrupted my transaction. I was in such a hurry that I dropped it. Now thanks to you, I haven't even been paid for my deal!"

"Show us where it was," Zach commanded. "If you try anything funny, you already know what will happen to you."

We marched through the streets with a glum looking Zodiac leading the way, still tied up so he couldn't escape. There weren't enough people on the streets to cause a scene, but the few people we met stared at us throughout our entire journey.

Finally, we stopped by a set of apartment buildings with a broken window that must have been where Reika made her spectacular entrance. I was clutching on tight to the rope while the others peered through the window.

"So you dropped it in there, right?" I asked. Zodiac nodded, and then shut his eyes. Reika got flustered all of a sudden.

"Oh wait, Riley, I should probably warn you…." Her warning got cut off as it felt like the whole world was spinning around me, like I was inside some kind of giant washing machine on spin cycle. I felt nauseous, light headed, and stuffed to the brim all at the same time as I tried to reorient myself once the world became still again. I was no longer stood outside with Zach and Reika, but now I was inside the bottom floor of the apartment, still clutching tight to the rope that bound Zodiac.

"Yeah, I probably should have mentioned it," he said. "I can kind of teleport. Did I forget?"

"How can you forget an important detail like that?!" I roared. He ignored me as he looked around. It looked like a wreck, what little furniture there was either upturned of torn in half. A vase had been smashed to the floor, the flowers bleeding water as it formed a sick puddle around it. There was a tiny television in the corner, but that had been smashed. Whatever fight he'd had with Reika must have been pretty intense. But of course, there was no sight of the Megiddo Circuit or his payment for it.

"Looks like he definitely took it," Zodiac said. "If I know that guy, we won't be able to trace him for it either. You only ever find him when he wants to find _you_."

"Great. So, how are we going to get it back then?"

"Simple. We trap him in a place where we _know_ he'll turn up, then steal it back. Or in my case, steal back my money. You can take your stupid gadget as long as I get paid for it."

"You're going to _not_ die. Isn't that payment enough?"

"Of course not. That's how underachievers think. I'm beyond that. I'm a forward thinking, entrepreneurial youth who's set great expectations for myself." I rolled my eyes at him as the world swirled around us again. When the spinning slowed down, it became the streets again, with Zach and Reika waiting patiently for us.

"So, not here?" she asked. Zodiac shook his head.

"The bad news is that we can't trace the guy very easily. At the very least, it will take more than a few days."

"Bad news tends to come with good news," Zach said.

"Well, the not so great news is that we can find him tonight. The problem is _where_. Tonight there's a big trade – off going on in the middle of the desert, outside Area 51. Getting close to them without the Federal Government killing us with missiles is already a mission, but if we're too late, then I lose my money, and you lose the Circuit." Zach shrugged his shoulders.

"So much for the good news I guess. Come on, let's get ourselves prepped up. Zodiac won't mind lending us his apartment, right?"

"Be my guest, it already looks like Hurricane Katrina passed through it. Although, if you're going to enlist my services, it might help a bit if you loosened up these ropes. You know, give me freedom of movement and all? It's not like running away benefits me. I still won't get my money, and you won't get your Circuit." After untying him, Zach started heading towards the door, resting his hand on the edge of the doorway as he entered. We all walked in, stepping on broken glass and splintered wood.

Our first order of business before doing anything else was dining on some kind of food, in this case cold pizza (since the microwave had been pretty badly damaged). After the struggle for food we'd been through, the pizza felt like a royal banquet. Our second order of business were showers with (more or less) hot water. The water felt blissful on my skin, and I almost felt like I'd forgotten what soap and shampoo was, even though it had only been a few days.

While everybody else was showering, I did a quick sweep of the area (like, literally sweeping the place so we wouldn't cut ourselves if we touched anything). I sat down on the last remaining chair and pulled it up to the messy bed so that we were all together. Zodiac seemed to take it upon himself to stand at the opposite side of the room by a big pin up board filled with loose sheets and building blueprints. He tore those down so we were staring at a blank wall, then pinned up a different sheet showing an aerial Google Earth view of Area 51.

"Alright, let's go over the operation," he said with theatrical brilliance, complete with a flickering, swinging lightbulb over his head. "Area 51 is a couple of miles south of here. I know a demigod taxi driver who owes me a favour too many, so he'll get us there the second I say it. The deals start around eleven, and go on until midnight. They use a different spot each night, and shuffle the order so nobody can track it, but tonight, they should be at this point here." He gestured at a point at the top of the map. "Everybody is armed, and there's a mix of mortals and non – mortals, so that's gonna make it hard for us to fight them."

"Wait, what are mortals doing here?" Reika asked. "Can they even see through the mist?"

"They're probably hunters," Zach said. "Mist or no mist, we tend to know how to find some pretty rare stuff, and we can usually make good change for it if we have to. Most of the time we destroy it though. Chances shouldn't be taken with magic." Zodiac cleared his throat to continue.

"These aren't your standard hunters. All of them are like that guy I was telling you about. They're all experienced and dangerous with some funky taste in ear wear. They're also all packing mac – 10 submachine guns. Two magazines loaded with lead bullets, two with Imperial gold. Effective against mortals, monsters, and demigods. You don't want to get hit by them.

"As for the monsters, there's a bunch of Scythian Dracaena in their usual gladiator styled gear: spears and nets. Their sense of smell is sharp, so don't stay downwind. Their ace and joker are these two puppies though."

He stuck a picture of a giant shirtless guy with super hairy, super tattooed arms and beach shorts onto the board.

"Is that like, some kind of ogre?" Zach asked, leaning on his own knee to get a closer look.

"I think it's a Canadian," Reika countered.

"Close. Well, the first guess at least," Zodiac answered. "That's a laistrygonian giant. They're big and dumb and have a tendency to sink boats and eat human flesh. This is a normal one, and they aren't much of a problem. But imagine three of them, and they've all been body building."

"Oh. That's bad, isn't it?"

"Very. Partnered up with _these_ guys too." He stuck another similar picture on the board, but this one looked like it had been starved, and was much taller and lankier. Its eyes were sunken in and soulless. "Don't let his appearance fool you, he's just as scary. This is a wendigo. Surprise, surprise, they also like human flesh, and there's three of them. Whenever they come, the Dracaena always bring one of these groups with them on a chain so the humans can't try any funny business. Killing them is hard. Fire's your best bet with the wendigo, but unless brute force is your thing, you can forget about fighting the giants. All in all, fighting is not an option."

"So we sneak in, right?" Reika asked.

"Correctomundo my child! And we do that behind _this_ rock formation!" He pointed at a big clump of boulders above the designated meeting place. "We sneak within range of them at this point here. Once I've got them within visuals, we wait for all the players to arrive. The first thing the humans will want to trade is the Megiddo Circuit. That agent I was here with probably hasn't met his employer yet, so he'll do that first. The dracaena won't have started any trades yet. Once it's visual, I'll use my awesome teleporting trick to appear, yank it out of his hands, and disappear.

"I can't teleport too far repeatedly, so when I get to them, you're gonna have to make a distraction to let me escape. That's where super speed girl comes in. You'll be at this point _here_ , to their east where the monsters can smell you. They'll get their attention up and come looking for you while we steal the gadget, and their forces will split. From the way I see it, the kid with the goggles is the only one who uses guns, so he's best suited with me dealing with other humans. Once I've got the gadget, goggle head will summon something big and get us the heck out of there. Sounds fair?"

"Sounds like a death trap," Reika said.

"But I'm in," I added. Reika looked at me like I was nuts.

"This plan just looks like we're this idiot's meat shields!" she yelled. "Specifically, _I'm_ the meat shield!"

"Well then, that will teach you to beat up the brains of the operation," Zodiac said with a smirk. "I'm like your white mage right now. I'm the only one who knows the land or has the power to steal back the Circuit, so if you mess with me, your whole plan is a bust. You dig?"

"I'll dig you a grave," Reika mumbled under her breath. It was probably a good thing this plan didn't involve the two of them staying in the same place.

"Relax Reika, I'll come with you," I said reassuringly. "Killing monsters is my specialty, remember?"

"Killing _everything_ is your specialty," she remarked slyly. "Just, try not to steal victory from right under our noses, alright Z?" He shot daggers at her. Yeah, it was a _really_ good thing they wouldn't be in the same place by nightfall. They fought like cats and dogs.

"So wendigoes are weak to fire?" Zach clarified. "If that's the case, then I'm gonna have to gear up to deal with it." He tried getting up, then collapsed back onto the bed. With a frown, he tried again, but his legs were wobbling as he forced himself to his feet. I grabbed his shoulder and gently pushed him back onto the bed again (okay, maybe it wasn't so gentle).

"Zach, relax," I said. "You've been up the whole day powering Suparna, right? You need a break, or else your body's gonna quit on you."

"I'm fine. This is nothing."

"No kiddo, you're not," Zodiac said. "If you end up passing out when things get hairy, we are _not_ going back to get you." Reika and I glared at him with the force of fire itself. "What? Okay, _I'm_ not going back for you. But if those two do then you're all dead. See the problem here? I need you three _alive_ if I want my money, and obviously you need to be living to get back the Circuit. So get some shut eye. We'll take care of the rest." Zach reluctantly nodded his head, taking off his cloak and slipping his shotgun under the bed as he curled up to sleep.

"You're a thief, right?" Zach asked.

"Certified procurer of all things valuable to all people, yes."

"Then find a way to get me a pistol and some led bullets. My shotgun won't harm them with celestial bronze, but if I have to fight them, I'd like something a bit less fatal." He passed out while Zodiac was in the middle of a long winded confirmation. Reika started giggling and I looked at her questioningly.

"He goes to sleep so quickly. I swear he's like a big baby, he just eats and sleeps!"

"Take away the shotgun and add a lot of crying and I think I see what you mean," I agreed. Great. Now I couldn't stop picturing him in a giant adult diaper.

"Well, I might as well start on acquiring stuff to prepare," he said.

"Oh no, I'm not letting you go _anywhere_ out of our sight!" Reika said, grabbing his shoulder just before they both teleported out of the room. They returned ten minutes later with a small handgun, ammunition, and a few flare guns.

"This is a stealth operation, what the heck are you doing with those?" I asked. "Signalling the cops maybe?"

"Just in case the Wendigo catches onto us early, this should do the trick. Now that we've got the plan in order, let's take the time now to relax, gather our strength, get ourselves mentally prepared."

Waiting was not my strong point. Actually, waiting wasn't any of our strong points, and telling a bunch of ADHD kids to sit still for hours isn't exactly the wisest idea in the world. Luckily, Zodiac had a plan of action, with a big retro looking arcade version of _Street Fighter_ in the only other room in the whole apartment. If I ignored the times when Zodiac and Reika were almost pushed to exchanging actual blows, it was pretty fun. Then the sun started to set and the air turned cold.

Zach arose like a dead man from the coffin, with plenty of moaning and a horrifying case of bedhead. We stepped outside to the most dangerous looking taxi I'd ever seen (perhaps minus the Gray Sisters' taxi).

This car was a second gen Ford Crown Victoria, you know, the kind you see used as police cars, and there were orange flame decals painted over the dirty yellow paint, and a flaming skull painted on the hood. It didn't help matters that the car had spinning rims and tinted black windows obscuring the driver. The window scrolled down, but the car's interior was still dark and obscured, so the only thing that was visible of the driver was a big, hairy, hulked out arm with a surprisingly detailed tattoo on the forearm.

"Hey, BP," Zodiac called as he approached the window. "Take us as close to Area 51 as you can get!" He then turned to us. "Come on guys, get in. It's more comfy than it looks."

"It was _not_ more comfy than it looked. It was the exact opposite actually. The ride was bumpy and uncomfortable, and the seats had red stains on them. And that was all while ignore the slightly diseased smell of the car's interior. The rear seats where we were seated were separated from the front seats with Zodiac and our very sketchy driver.

The journey was undertaken in complete and total silence apart from the sputtering engine that sounded like it needed immediate medical attention. I could feel the tension in the air rising with each passing second. I was used to being jumped at random by monsters, but when you _knew_ that you were walking into a brawl, it was a different thing altogether. Sure, there was the confidence from being ready, but there was the flipside of the same coin. It was like there was this mounting dread that something could go wrong, and somebody could get hurt. That somebody could be me.

After an infinitely long car ride, the car slowed to a halt on the side of a dusty road. By now it was nightfall, and the great expanse of nothing was barely illuminated by the light of a full moon. We trekked across the desert, keeping ourselves low to the ground until eventually I could see a fenced off facility in the distance. It was hard to see clearly but it looked like some kind of military base or airport. That had to be Area 51. Between us and the great facility was a gathering of people and a few trucks. I could just barely make out their silhouettes, but they didn't all look human. Amongst them were a few larger hulking individuals that towered over the rest. What really got my attention though, was a big stone tablet right in the middle of them all.

Even from where I was stood, I could see what it was. It looked like somebody had taken a sledgehammer to it and somebody tried gluing it together, with hundreds of cracks still in it and big chunks missing. It was about half my height and made of some weird cream coloured rock. It was emitting a bright golden light, making it almost like a gigantic torch. Actually, emitting light isn't the correct term. This was more like there was light shining down on it from an unknown source, but no matter how hard I looked above it, I couldn't really tell where it was coming from. I tore my eyes away from it before the sight could drive me mad.

"What's that?" I whispered to Zodiac.

"That, is an interesting piece of hardware of which I have no knowledge," he replied. "But it is strange. I see it here every now and then. It would be a good idea to leave it alone. Oh, there's the guy we're looking for!" I couldn't make him out clearly or see the earpiece until he got within range of the glowing tablet, but he seemed to fit the description. Big and bald, black earpiece sticking into his ear, sunglasses (in the middle of the night?) and a leather jacket. At least he wasn't in a black suit.

There were more humans coming from the other side of the tablet, and a little to their right were the Scythian dracaena, slithering their way through the desert floor.

"Okay, we're running low on time," Zodiac said. "You know what the plan is. Riley, Reika, go."

We nodded our heads and got to work. While Zach and Zodiac went in one direction, we went the other way, trying not to trip with how little visibility there was. It didn't take long for a few dracaena to suddenly change their course, heading towards us instead. They must have sniffed us out already, just like Zodiac predicted.

"Alright, let's go!" I whispered as I was about to launch myself over our cover. Reika grabbed me and yanked me back down. "What was that for?" I asked.

"We have to wait for Zodiac to start his side of the operation. We act now, and we might never see the Megiddo Circuit again." I was getting more and more edgy the longer we waited, especially with those dracaena getting closer and closer to our hiding spot. It was only a matter of time before one of them found us, and then it would be over.

I was so busy eyeing the monsters that I almost didn't notice when I heard the human yell in surprise. I looked up to see Zodiac by his side, having a tug of war with him over the device. He gave him a spirit crushing low blow and snatched the device out of his hands. That was the part that went according to plan. What happened next was a different story though. He went around teleporting rapidly between the humans and dracaena, pickpocketing different things from them. Items and trinkets, briefcases and wallets that probably had money, that kind of stuff.

"That idiot!" I roared. "He's meant to get in, then get out!" I guess I forgot I was meant to be in hiding, because the nearby dracaena all turned to me with an angry hiss.

"Go, go, go!" Reika yelled, jumping up from behind cover. Too late to hide I guess. I sprinted towards the first dracaena, narrowly rolling out of the way of an incoming spear. I punched it in the face, sending it backwards staggering. My gloves still hadn't appeared yet, so until that happened I was weaponless. No problem, it was fun this way.

Two of them circled me while two stood in front of me as a distraction. I recognised this, but I wasn't going to fall for it a second time. I just narrowly avoided the spears until I could catch one. I yanked on it hard, pulling its owner towards me as I elbowed her in the face. That did the trick as she went limp, letting go of her spear. I grabbed her and tossed her behind me at the dracaena with the net. They tossed it, only to ensnare their comrade, and now I had a new spear.

I whirled around again, parrying the last one's spear before stabbing her instead. She deflected it with ease using her shield, charging for me instead.

Reika appeared from her side, leaping and digging her rollerblades into her side. She went flying, rolling through the ground as she started turning to dust, leaving behind a set of armour and a shield. That would do.

I sprinted towards it, rolling as I pulled it off the ground, and held up my weapons, spear arm upraised with the shield in front of me, perfect Spartan fighting position.

It was hard to see around me, but my other senses were starting to take over already. I could hear the clatter of armour behind me as two or three dracaena charged at me from there. Ahead of me were a few more, but Reika seemed to be keeping them occupied. I could hear rapid gunshots to my right, probably the mortals fighting each other, and I didn't care enough to wonder where Zodiac was. That's when it hit me. Literally.

I felt something slam into me from my left, sending me careening through the dust. I was lucky to be able to hold onto my weapons. When I got back to my feat, whatever it was had vanished. I felt it again, this time grabbing me from behind in a massive bear hug. I tried to wriggle free, but it was like I'd been tied with iron bars. The smell coming off of it was enough to make me gag, and I could feel sharp, jutting ribs digging into my back. It must have been the wendigo. Why was it so silent? I hadn't even heard it coming, let alone seen it!

Ahead of me were two gigantic men with tattoos all over their body and serrated teeth. One was in a vest, the other was shirtless, both in beach shorts. Even by demigod standards they were too big to be human, so those were probably the giants. They were a bit more obvious, the jangle of a chain wrapped around their necks signalling each movement they made. They were both holding clubs that were died a suspicious red.

Fury started to fill my body. I wasn't going to die by being hugged to death by some giant dieter and his drinking buddy. I could feel my blood running hot through my veins, and feel the flames of Ares envelop me. I loosened the wendigo's grip just enough to elbow him in the gut. While he was reeling, I punched his jaw and ran, still clutching the spear and shield. Sure, I had my gloves back, but the reach advantage of their inhuman arms was too much to take a chance with.

One of the giants swung his club at me. I held up my shield to block. Big mistake. Blessing of Ares or not, I felt the shock of that one all the way up in my teeth. His shirtless amigo raised his club to finish me when Reika jumped on his back, beating him on the head repeatedly with a rock. It didn't seem to do much more than annoy him slightly as he peeled her off and slammed her to the ground.

"No!" I screamed, hurling my spear at his face. It caught him right between the eyes, a scream like scraping metal filling the air as he turned to dust. The second one snarled, raising his club for another swing. This time, I tossed my shield like a Frisbee, the disc embedding itself in his mouth, and almost out the other side of his head. After a few staggered seconds, he collapsed to his knees, dissipating into yellow sand as well.

I pulled the shield out, but I still didn't know where the wendigo was, and if what Zodiac said was right, then I wouldn't be able to beat it. Tie that together with my aching shoulder and Reika's near unconscious form on the ground, and things were looking bad.

Well, they _were_ looking bad. Then they got a thousand times worse. The ground was trembling beneath my feet. No… it was tearing itself apart, crevices opening and gaping holes ripping themselves into existence. The air shook and vibrated with power, like the very air was having its own quake. A loud, unearthly groan filled the air, like somebody was twisting and tearing a gigantic sheet of metal above our heads. And the light. Oh man the light.

Everything went dark for just a second. No lights, no stars, no moon or fire, nothing. Then, it was like a gigantic lightbulb had been turned on inside my skull. Bright and searing, burning my eyes, my head, my lungs my everything. I couldn't see, I couldn't think, I couldn't breathe. Closing my eyes wasn't helping, I could only clutch my head and cry. The tears probably weren't coming because they were evaporating off of my face. After an eternity of probably only ten seconds, it died down to bearable levels, and I could open my eyes without wincing.

The broken apart tablet from before was now a shining white with a golden rim around the parts that weren't destroyed. The light coming off of it was like the light of the heavens itself. The glow from celestial bronze was like a broken glow stick by comparison. Just looking at it was a bit like sitting under a five ton elephant. The pressure was ridiculous, like somebody was trying to crush my lungs, and I felt like any moment now, my lungs would just shatter. The only thing that probably kept me from passing out was the blessing of Ares, though it felt like a curse right at that moment. Everything within twenty metres of the thing had just completely disappeared in a glorious blaze of light and fire.

It was so quick, I almost missed it. The thin tendril of light that extended from it, lashing out like a king cobra and striking the big earpiece wearing man in nanoseconds. There wasn't anything left of him but a pair of sunglasses and sneakers. A few more tendrils lashed out, hitting everything nearby with expert precision. Two men in lab coats, and five more like its first victim were reduced to smouldering piles of clothes. The monsters nearby didn't even receive that courtesy, disintegrating outright, clothes and all.

Everyone started running in different directions. Some even ran towards Area 51, ignoring the sirens that went off a few seconds after the start of the event. Two even tried climbing over the fence, only to be shot down like dogs (then cleaned up like dust by two particularly adventurous talons of light).

 _This rush of energy,_ a voice said. Deep and archaic, rumbling like the earth with the strength of fire, calm as the ocean with the clarity of air, it was an indescribable voice. A voice that sounded as old as time itself, and just as unforgiving. It resonated within me and all around me at the same time. I wasn't even sure it was speaking English, or _any_ known language for that matter, or how I understood it. _This feels like it comes from heaven itself. But no, that cannot be. I have already been forsaken. Whatever it is, I must witness its strength again when I have eyes to view it._

I'm not sure what let me know this, but I could tell it was addressing me now. _Child of war, I can feel your strength. I can feel your lust for battle and desire of power. Your thirst for blood is exquisite, truly exemplary of the human race. I know that you can do great and terrible things with that power…._

I didn't have much choice but to listen, what with the voice being drilled into my brain, but as he was speaking, I was noticing something odd. The people around me were starting to collapse, like they were being drained of their strength, then pushed into the ground. The effects were worse the closer they got to the tablet. Reika was already down, but her breathing now looked laboured, and I could see her veins through her skin. It was so bright that I could see Zach and Zodiac clearly in the distance, though they probably weren't paying attention to me as they were too busy passing out to notice.

"What are you doing to them?" I asked. "They're in pain."

 _They just aren't strong enough to handle my presence,_ the voice replied. _If they stay in this atmosphere for too long, they'll perish. But you seem to be different._ I guess the difference was pretty small, because I could barely breathe either. _I know your type. You will do a lot for power. I can help you to maximise that power. Good or evil, you will have the power to do what you wish with it. And nobody will be able to stop you. Not even the pagans._

"Stop hurting them," I said, barely audible above my laboured breathing. I took a step towards the tablet. It felt like I was walking under tent times normal gravity, and my next step was like ten times that. "You'll 'maximise my power'? What kind of sales line is that? Even if your offer is tempting, I'm not gonna listen to somebody who tries to kill my friends just to crack a deal. It's bad practice, so you can take your offer, and shove it back to whatever hole you crawled out from!"

That seemed to get him mad. The ground started shaking with even more force than before, and I was sent straight to my butt in a most undignified manner.

 _A pity. It would have been fun to see how far I could push humanity's strength. Well, I have no more use for you then. Let me stretch my legs, in a manner of speaking._ The light started brightening again. I didn't think I could take a second dosage of the not – so – glorious light, but I shut my eyes anyway.

It felt like an eternity had passed waiting for my impending doom. As it got quiet and the ground stopped shaking, I guess I kind of realised that my impending doom wasn't so impending anymore, and opened my eyes. As you can imagine, I was just as surprised to find Chiron sort of/ kind of kneeling in the corner of a small, dimly lit room as he was to see me.

"Riley?" he asked in alarm. It looked like he had just been sleeping as he was wearing a fuzzy blue night cap on his head and a blue pyjama shirt. His legs were in full horse mode. "Zach, Reika, what are you doing here? No, a better question is, _how_ did you get here?"

"That's a question I'd like the answer to myself," Zach replied. Reika was still on the floor, though her breathing seemed to have become regular again. It was too dark to see anything clearly since most of the light in the room was coming off of my gauntlets. Chiron stood up properly and squeezed between us all to the other side of the room to hit the light switch. I think we all gasped as soon as the room lit up just to reveal a tall, incredibly pale man, with shoulder length hair as dark as coals and a braided golden crown.

He was dressed in black silk robes that seemed to twist and churn with living shadows, and the power radiating off of him felt like it was compelling my heart to stop. This was the Lord of the Dead himself, Hades. He carried Zodiac by his jumper in his right hand, the boy squirming and kicking for a few seconds before he looked up and realised who was carrying him. Hades dropped him, and he scrambled away from him, tripping over Reika and hitting his head against the leg of a desk.

"We have a problem," Hades said. "It has to do with the Ten Commandments. The original ones." Chiron reeled in shock, his muscles all going taut as he clenched his fists.

"This cannot be…. Has… has the power of the Morning Star been released?"

"There's only one way to find out," Hades replied, and he stepped backwards into the wall, slinking into the shadows and disappearing from sight.

"The Morning Star?" I asked. "What's that?" Chiron's face looked drained of all colour, and it suddenly didn't look like the best time to interrogate him, but he swallowed his fear and tried to answer anyways.

"Morning Star," Zach began, "is the devil himself, Lucifer."

My blood turned to ice in my veins. The lightbulb seemed to flicker and the wind outside howled louder for a second. All the shadows stretched further and distorted more. Nothing seemed safe anymore. "In Judeo – Christian myth, Lucifer was originally an angel, the strongest one. But he fell out with his family and was cast straight to Tartarus. But Hades can't be talking about the same guy, can he?" We all turned our attention to Chiron. His expression was paused in thought, deep thought. He opened his mouth, and hung there for a second, as if he was contemplating whether he should tell us something, and how much he should tell us.

"Yes, and no," he finally said. "The so – called 'Devil' is not someone that we should be concerned with. He is still trapped in Tartarus. The prophecies concerning him are unrelated to our own. But still, for Hades to show himself just to save a bunch of demigods and a mortal… what happened?"

We tried relating our quest to him as quickly as possible. As much as I wanted to brag about my battles and victories, this didn't seem like the time or place. When I was done, Chiron looked a lot more disturbed than he was before.

"I think I get it," he said. "Before The Morning Star was cast from heaven, he fought against his brother, Michael, in a cataclysmic battle. When he was defeated, The Morning Star was stripped of his powers and title as a Seraphim, and cast down into the underworld. Still, you cannot destroy energy so easily, especially energy like that of a god. The Morning Star's power, or 'Grace' as it is called, was compressed and sealed inside Mount Sinai."

"Okay," Zodiac started, "so this big hunk of rock was now turned into a _radioactive_ big hunk of rock?" Chiron ignored him completely and carried on.

"Normally, Grace from an angel isn't harmful. In fact, most of it was stored in a single tablet chiselled from the mountain with a list of ten laws the people there had to follow."

"The original Ten Commandments," Zach said. "But, weren't those destroyed? I don't remember the last time I stepped foot in a church or read a Bible, but I remember that Moses got angry at some point and wrecked it 'cause nobody was following them. Not much different from now I guess…."

"Yes, but you can't destroy energy like that. All it needed was for somebody to find all the pieces and put them together like a jigsaw. The pieces are known by most as Shards of Samael, and together they would form Samael's Tablet, a relic of unimaginable power."

"Oh yeah, I saw something like that!" I chimed in. "There was this weird pile of rocks, and some of the humans and monsters added bits to it. Then, it suddenly got all bright and started changing colours. So what, that was Luci's Grace?"

"Possibly. For us, Samael's Tablet is a bit of a myth. I don't even know if it's real. If it is, that still doesn't explain who, or _what_ that voice you heard was."

"Got any clues?" If he did, he wasn't willing to share them, as his expression darkened like thunderclouds. If this was the calm before the storm, then the storm was going to be a hurricane. The sombre atmosphere seemed to make us forget that we had just been fighting for our lives, as suddenly I remembered that Reika was still prone on the floor. She was coming round, and didn't seem too hurt, just disoriented. Zach, however, was a different story. I saw a few drops of blood hit the floorboards, and turned to look at him. He realised what was happening too and looked at his arm.

There was a big red liquid patch spreading across his right shoulder, even staining what was left of his coat. He clutched it in pain, trying in vain to stop the bleeding.

"Riley, apply pressure to the wound," Chiron commanded me. "I'm getting a first – aid kit. Zachariah, try not to move around too much. It will make the bleeding worse."

"Right," he replied. "I think it's a bullet wound. It really freaking hurts." I was tempted to go get some ambrosia, but I remembered that Zach couldn't take any without disintegrating. I led him towards the desk and sat him down on it since there weren't any chairs or a bed.

"You got shot?" I asked him.

"Apparently I did," he replied. "Who knew, huh?"

"You idiot, why didn't you say something?"

"Well I was too busy thinking I was going to be vaporised to think about the minor injury in my arm."

"It could be infected. We could have to amputate your whole arm and sever the nerves to your spine."

"Now you made that bit up to scare me."

"It doesn't matter, just say something next time!" Zach just shrugged his shoulders, which immediately sent him into a fit of pain and below his breath cursing.

"Look, forget about my arm for a second," he said through his gritted teeth. "Our problem is that weird Samael Tablet or whatever. That thing was way too strong to be part of some back alley deal. If _that_ was what Mom was chasing, then I think we've just dived into the deep end."

"That's an understatement. That thing was unreasonably strong. And I think it's sentient too. That voice that I heard… It was definitely coming from the tablet."

"But, Chiron said that Samael's Tablet was just filled with energy," Zodiac said. "That's like expecting a battery to come to life."

"Well whatever it was, it came from the tablet, and it was going to kill us with ease. As we are now, we can't fight it."

"I think we can't fight it, period. What the hell are we meant to do against something like that? Hell, what are we meant to do in general? After that, I'm not sure I even have the guts to step outside."

"Simple," I replied. I wasn't too good at following all of this talk about theories and theologies, but I was good at the practical, hands on stuff. There was only one answer that made sense in my head.

"We train. We train, train, and train some more. We train until our bodies can't move and our minds scream for rest, and then we train some more. We build up our power and gather our courage. We pool together our strength and sharpen our blades against each other's wills. And then, we go back for a rematch against that immortal rock and smash him into a thousand bits. After all, we're heroes. It's our job to create hope where none exists, and cleave a path to victory. It's just what we do."


	11. A TALE OF VAMPS AND BIKINIS

**Huzzah! I have resurrected! Okay, so here's the deal. I type up all of my story chapters in advance, so that I have some leeway in case something goes wrong and I can't write, right? So on chapter ten, that was basically the end of part 1, and that's when my backup chapters had finally caught up to me. So I went on a break to write more in the meantime. Then NaNoWriMo came up and I wasn't really writing any fanfic for a few months, then I got SICK and then I was just LAZY and it was a big mess! But now, I've written a few chapters up (not as many as last time but I think I can manage) and I'm ready to go! So, I'm sorry to anybody who was waiting patiently for the next chapter the whole time! Don't worry, I haven't forgotten you! I've actually gone back and edited a few things to neaten it up. Not a lot or anything that needs checking out, but for example, Chapter 1 now starts with PART I: CHASING THE LIT FUSE because that's now just what it's called. So THIS is part 2, all for your entertainment!**

 **PART II: THE NOBLE SCAVENGER HUNT**

 **CHAPTER 11: A TALE OF VAMPS AND BIKINIS (Ludmila's thoughts)**

I was starting to wonder whether I just smelled good to sea creatures. This had to be something like the third time that I've fought off a giant sea serpent before, and the first time I've dealt with one that had multiple heads. Even though there were loads of other people on the beach who were showing off much juicier, delectable flesh in their bikinis and swim shorts (eww, remind me never to think of anyone as juicy or delectable again), this creature had decided to target me, and me alone. Oh yeah, you're probably pretty confused right now, and wondering how I ended up getting hunted by a freestyling monster. Well then, let me explain myself.

My name, is Ludmila Lockhart. I'm a twelve year old weirdo who's been expelled from three schools already. It's not my fault, I'm not a trouble maker or anything. I do my homework and don't get into fights. I just have really, _really_ bad luck, and a tendency to see things that just about everybody misses. I think I kind of understand why now, but back then, I really didn't get it. You see, if you're a kid like me, you'll wish that you were paying more attention to your mythology back when you were in third grade. But also if you're like me, you probably didn't because it was boring, and your teacher was secretly a bloodsucking vampire who hated your guts and didn't teach you anything. Or they were boring too.

So, going back to _before_ the hydra tried to eat my swimming costume, I'll take you to the last day of school, a couple of weeks ago.

Like all last days, the classroom was basically a war ground. Nobody wanted to sit still, nobody was paying attention, nobody wanted to _do_ any work, and if you did, you were either a robot, or oblivious to the fact that the teachers didn't want to do any work either. I was sitting right at the front of the class (stupid seating arrangement) so trying to do anything other than pretend to read was a mission I wasn't equipped to handle. The history textbook in my hands was boring and had no pictures, not to mention that trying to read the words gave me a massive headache thanks to my dyslexia. Try to imagine reading a book where the letters decided to frequently shuffle themselves around like a deck of cards.

Our classroom was painted blue (because it's 'soothing') and had a thick timeline running all around it, starting at the stone age by the door, and looping all around the walls and around windows with different people's work stuck up and the least fun 'fun facts' imaginable until it reached the door again at the year 2000. It seemed to be missing fourteen years if it wanted to stop at the present.

"Alright class, listen up," the teacher said. Of course, nobody _did_ listen up. I _really_ didn't like her. She looked like one of those fresh out of college types who decided to become a teacher without thinking about the fact that she hates kids.

She had too many top buttons in her blouse undone, as if she was trying to impress some sleaze ball somewhere. Her skirt was too short, her hair too fake, her makeup too thick, and her smile too bright. And that's not mentioning the intoxicating stench of expensive perfumes that desperately clung to her. It was like looking at an abstract representation of a super model, and it made my skin crawl. Whenever a parent or more serious teacher was around, her voice turned so sweet it bordered diabetic. She was always giving the younger ones creepy winks and bewitching stares. And nobody seemed to catch onto her whole act, or want to do anything about it, except her class. At least we were together on our distrust of our history teacher, Miss Valentine.

I remembered that I was meant to be listening to her and started paying attention again.

"I've been talking with the PTA and the rest of the school staff, and they've given us the go ahead. We're all set for the summer beach trip!" Before the classroom could erupt into a mix of cheers and jeers, she silenced them with a devilish look and her upheld palm. "But remember, everything you do will reflect badly on _me_ , so you little monsters better behave or you'll find yourself in summer school for the next six years! Understood?"

The summer beach trip was something that Valentine had been going on about since the start of the year. She wanted our whole class to have one big weekend long beach trip in the middle of the summer as a final goodbye before she went off to whatever new school she would terrorise. Apparently it was for 'bonding' and keeping in touch, but we all knew she just wanted to show off her new and just barely legal swimsuit. I'm surprised she even managed to get it past the rest of the PTA with the way it would destroy their budget and had no 'educational value'. Already I could hear the lurid gossip and outlandish theories being flung around the classroom about how it was approved. I tried not to listen to them.

She handed us a bunch of weird forms for our parents to sign and mail back to them that basically said if we died then they were totally okay with it, and then dismissed us. I tried not to make eye contact with my more energetic acquaintances and began heading straight home. Everybody was discussing summer plans, but I didn't really have anybody to talk about that stuff with here. Well, nobody except maybe Verde, who squeezed past the crowd and found his way to where I was.

Verde is a bit of a weird kid. Apart from looking a little older than everybody else, which _already_ set him apart from them, he was strange and scrawny, with a big trucker cap that he tried to keep on at all times, and he walked funny. Apparently, he had some weird muscle problem in his legs which explained the limp in his step and excused him from all PE lessons. He seemed lonely so I tried sharing my apple with him when he first came. He ate the whole thing, apple core included. After that, he kind of grew attached to me and wouldn't leave me alone, though honestly, I was glad for the company.

"You going to that beach trip?" he asked.

"I'm not sure, I guess I will," I replied. "I don't want to be the only one who's not there."

"Yeah, but you know your track record with water," he said.

"Hey, that flooding incident wasn't my fault!" I yelled.

"Sure it wasn't," he said with heavy sarcasm. "It was a freak accident caused by a twelve foot long water snake. Totally believe you."

"You could at least try harder to _pretend_ to believe me!"

"There's no way I'll entertain your weird imagination. But hey, keep trying and maybe you can use it to write a book or something!" I could never really tell if he was joking or if he just liked making fun of me. Even when he was complimenting me, it somehow turned into an insult. "Anyway, if you're going, then I might as well tag along, keep you out of trouble, the usual."

" _I'm_ the one keeping _you_ out of trouble, Vee!" He rolled his eyes as we made it to the front gate of the school.

"Want me to escort you back home?" he asked. "Streets are dangerous you know."

"No thanks, I'm good." He looked a little concerned, and for a second he dropped the mischievous half smile on his lips.

"Are you sure? I can watch your back you know. It's not like I've got anything better to do."

"Go do your homework or something, it will keep you occupied." His face scrunched up in distaste as he shook his head and walked off, utterly repulsed at the notion. And that left me to continue my journey back home alone. He was cool and all, but I didn't need him hobbling after me twenty – four seven.

I'd at least memorised the route by now, so even though my eyes were pointed at my sneakers, I knew exactly where I was going. I guess it was pretty weird since I still didn't know which way anything else was. I kind of have this guided sense about which way home is, like a built in GPS system or something that only has my house and the bus stops to get there marked on it.

Two bus rides later through a town I knew nothing about and I arrived in the suburbs, the great big sea of sameness as far as the eye could see. Perfectly straight roads with perfectly picketed fences sealing off perfectly mowed lawns in front of perfectly bland bungalows. We didn't used to live here. I know dad hates the place with a passion. We used to live in a much bigger house in a fancy neighbourhood in Hollywood for the rich and famous. My dad just barely got the rich bit down, but he was currently lacking in the famous department, and after falling out with half our old neighbours, moved to a place that was a bit easier to finance.

I found the door locked and guessed that dad was still at work, so probably left the spare key beneath the flowerpot. Actually, that wasn't really accurate. The key beneath the flowerpot was used to open the box held underneath the mailbox, which _then_ unlocked the front door.

"Old habits die hard, huh dad?" I said to nobody in particular as I finally got the door open. The house looked like it needed some more spring cleaning, and the coat rack had been toppled over. The pots and pans from breakfast were still sitting in the kitchen sink, unwashed and waiting to be dealt with. Indistinct chatter could be heard coming from the television. I corrected the coat rack, and then took care of the dishes and was halfway through preparing lunch when I finally heard the door open and my dad's boots on the hardwood floor.

"Welcome home," I called out, not turning my eyes from the carrots lest I cut off my fingers while chopping them.

"Mila, you're here early," he replied. I heard him tossing his coat at the coat rack. He probably missed.

"Actually, you're late."

"Really? Huh. Who knew?" Nothing was really burning or anything so I turned away from the counter for a second and entered the living room. He had planted himself in the couch and was rubbing the exhaustion out of his eyes. He looked like he needed to sleep for a day and take a shower. But he didn't look angry or anything so he was probably just tired. Perfect, he wouldn't have the energy to say no to anything.

"Hey, Dad," I began. He looked up to face me. Dad had well cared for, if not slightly aging blonde hair, almost silver in his age. Much different to my own chocolate brown hair. His eyes were a green that used to have a zest for life, but seemed to have fizzled out. Again, not like my boring black eyes. Well, brown, just _really_ dark brown, like, too common and ordinary brown.

"What's up kiddo?" he asked, smiling with his whiter – than – white teeth.

"My class was planning this school trip thing later in the holiday, and they wanted to get a parent to sign it to say they were okay with it." I nervously handed him the slip. It's not like I really wanted to go, but I couldn't just abandon Vee to his fate.

He took the slip and examined it for a few moments.

"School in the holidays? Geez, that sucks…. Have they got you covered for transport?" I nodded my head. All we had to do was make it to school on time. Another miracle of Miss Valentine's supposed 'charm'. "Hmm…. Well, I guess It's been a while since you've been to the beach, right? Like, two years or something?"

"Six years ago Dad," I reminded him, "and you promised we would go every year since."

"Yeah, I did, huh?" Guilt tripping him was probably a little bit underhanded, but it got the job done when I saw him searching for a pen in his pocket. I came prepared, handing him one of my own. He signed it off with a flourish of a way too elaborate signature, and handed it back. He looked a little bit nervous for some reason, but otherwise, he was fine. "Make sure you don't forget anything, and always apply sunblock. You know, the usual."

So, after a few weeks and some rushed last minute preparations, I found myself on Miami Beach, as far away from the water as possible and trying to construct an elaborate sand castle while Valentine eyed me suspiciously from the other end of the beach. And that's when things started going wrong.

* * *

The rolling waves of the beach seemed too lazy to use any force, and just seemed to gently collapse into a frothy mess at the shore. The water was littered with people splashing and dunking each other underwater, and a few stray beach balls. A windsurfer could be seen further in the distance. I, on the other hand, was staying far away from the water, where nothing could try and eat me. Knowing my luck, sharks would be the least of my worries.

I was wearing a simple yellow one piece outfit, complete with a wide brimmed sunhat. A sharp contrast to Verde who basically just came in jeans and a tank top, complete with his green backpack, as if he wasn't at the beach. The rest of my class was goofing off over by the water with the exception of a small squad of sun tanners. Miss Valentine was sun tanning in a bikini that was more string than bikini, with those stupid sunglasses that are half the size of your head. As long as I stayed away from the ocean, I would be fine. Maybe I could build a sand castle?

"Did I ever mention that building sand castles is lame?" Verde asked.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" I asked him. He shrugged his shoulders.

"I didn't. I could just tell from the way you were staring at the sand."

"And how does _that_ tell you that I wanted to make a sand castle?"

"You've not answered my question yet: do you acknowledge that sand castles are for losers?"

Before I could reply, I felt the force of the sun diminish as somebody cast their shadow over me. Miss Valentine was staring down at me with icy blue eyes, her sunglasses resting on top of her brown hair.

"Ludmila, darling, you can't seriously stay here all on your lonesome while everybody else is having fun, can you?"

"She's not on her own, I'm still here," Verde pointed out. Valentine gave him a vicious glare and he backed down.

"Uh, sorry Miss, I don't know how to swim," I said. I wasn't exactly lying, I always start to panic the second the water rose above my knees, and being submerged in the stuff is definitely not good for me. My chest tightens up, my breathing becomes rapid, my muscles go limp….

"Oh come on, don't be such a buzzkill!" she said, jerking me out of my beach recliner. Her nails were digging painfully into my arm, and I'm pretty sure if she gripped me any tighter, I would start bleeding. I looked back at Verde and mouthed the words _help me_ , but Verde stayed put, munching on the seat cushions nervously.

I tried to resist, digging my heels into the sand, but all I got was sand in my slippers, and it didn't look like Valentine even noticed. For somebody who didn't seem to do much other than flirt with everybody, she was pretty strong.

After a pretty brief struggle, she made it to the water's edge, where nothing but the sound of gentle waves and a few seagulls in the distance could be heard. Verde seemed to have grown a spine and ran after me.

"Hey, Miss Valentine, I don't think that she should go in there," he said. "She gets sick really easily, and I don't think you want to deal with twenty sick kids on the bus ride back." She hesitated slightly, then carried on anyway, the water reaching up to our ankles now.

"Oh relax, the water's good for you!" she reassured, wrapping her arms around me and picking me up so I couldn't struggle. "Strengthens your core muscles. I mean really, don't you want to have a body like me?" I felt too uncomfortable to answer. Unfortunately, she took this as a yes, and crushed me even tighter as we got further into the deep end. Verde made this weird nervous cry, almost like a bleat, and tried to step forward to grab me, but froze in his tracks.

I was wondering if perhaps he was scared of water, until I looked up at Miss Valentine. Her icy eyes had turned ruby red, and her skin had turned ghostly white. She smiled at me, but she didn't seem to have realised that she had a set of fangs.

"V-v-vampire?" I stammered.

"Come on Mila, off you go now!" she said cheerfully. She held me above her head even as I was kicking and screaming, and tossed me far out into the ocean. I'm not sure where she got the strength from, and I was too busy reeling from the revelation that she was a vampire to think about it more. I hit the water like a rock, panicking as the water rushed in to greet me, dragging me beneath the chilly waves. I made the mistake of screaming more, air escaping my lungs and being replaced by water as I kicked and thrashed my way to the surface.

My head broke the water as I began coughing up big globs of seawater, trying to get the salty taste out of my mouth. It was only then that I _really_ began to realise how wrong the whole picture was. Our side of the beach was empty. There wasn't a single person splashing in the water. The only hint I had that there was once activity was a solitary beach ball floating at the water's edge.

Valentine gave me an evil grin as she turned around back towards the shore. I was still trying to figure out why a bloodsucking vampire would simply chuck me into the water instead of drain me of my life, when I felt the water churning more violently around me.

I froze, before a throat full of water reminded me that I would drown if I didn't tread water. Sputtering and coughing, I turned around. Emerging from the water's surface was a gigantic snake like creature, but it decided to take a step up from giant water snake and had eight heads and necks instead of one.

Its scales were aquamarine and shone like pearls, and each of its yellow, reptilian eyes stared at me with hunger. Negotiating didn't look like an option. It roared at me, the volume of the scream threatening to make my ears burst. I could feel it vibrating through my entire body, shaking me down to my very core. Its breath was like the world's largest fish market if all the fish were rotting. It turns out that Miami is a great holiday destination for people and hydras alike.

Panicked, I turned around and started splashing towards the beach. It felt like the more I swam, the further I got from the shore, but the hydra wasn't going anywhere. It screeched at me again, the sound like a thousand nails on chalkboard, with some strange gurgling undertones beneath it all.

One of its heads went after me, snapping at the water just behind me. The force of its attack disrupted all the water around me, a large wave slamming into me, submerging me under the water.

I tried to reach towards the surface, clutching and pulling at the water in vain, when I felt something thick wrap around my body. The saltwater stung my eyes so I could barely see anything, and even if I could, the bubbles from the fray blocked everything, until I was pulled out of the water, still kicking and screaming.

The hydra's neck pulled me higher and higher away from the water, until I was looking down a two storey drop to the water. Everything below my neck was wrapped up by giant snake, and the other heads all hissed and spat at me, sometimes tangling themselves up as they tried to get a closer look.

I wasn't sure what would kill me first, the snake constricting me, or one of the other snakes chomping my head off. I struggled with it, trying to force my way out, but every time I thought I made a breakthrough, it just tightened again with twice the force. If my heart was pounding any faster, it would have broken through my rib cage and out of my chest. I wanted to run, scream, and cry all at the same time, and it wasn't letting me do any of those as it squeezed tighter, my breath leaving me. That's when I felt it happen. The power.

My body temperature suddenly jumped from downright hypothermic to boiling hot, and I could feel myself rapidly getting dry, as if the water was evaporating off of my skin. The creature hissed in pain, letting go of me as if I was a wasp that had just stung it. I hit the water with a painful smash, my muscles aching in pain. Everything went dark for a moment, colours flashing in and out of view as I blacked out just for a second, before I woke up again, rising to the surface. I looked around at the water. The water closest to me was bubbling and boiling. I wasn't entirely sure what I had done, but the sensation felt familiar. Something I didn't want to tap into again. This wasn't the first time, but now I could recognise it.

The hydra was still writhing in pain. Some of the heads were trying to tend to the one that grabbed me, licking at the burn marks, but it snapped back at them in rage. While they were bickering, I used the opportunity to swim back to shore, feeling lightheaded and dizzy.

I pulled myself onto the beach, steam coming off of my skin. My stomach felt like it was twisted into knots, and my limbs like they were burning. I felt like I was inside a giant microwave oven, baking from the inside out. I took a moment to catch my breath, still on all fours on the sand. I could feel myself starting to cool down now, but just moving was still a pain. I heard sinking footsteps on the sand, and saw an oddly mismatched pair of a furry, wet hoof, and a bronze foot. I followed them up to the rest of the body, but instead of seeing a horrifying metallic donkey amalgam, I was looking at Miss Valentine. Except with a different set of legs, and vampire fangs. She was smiling.

"Ah, so you _were_ a half – blood!" she said. "I had a hunch, but I wasn't so sure until just now."

"A half – blood?" I asked. "W-what's that? Like, some kind of vampire target or something?" Valentine seemed to think I was telling some unfunny joke, and sauntered towards me. I scrambled backwards until I felt my palms touch the water. I'd rather take my chances with my demon history teacher than the snake.

"Before I kill you, let me set something straight," she said. "I'm not a vampire. Vampires are stupid and don't exist. I'm an empousa, much more threatening."

"And with a goat leg?" That seemed to have done it. Her expression became thunderous, and she clenched her fists so tight that blood began dripping from the palms. She lunged at me. I shut my eyes, holding up my arms in front of me. Instead of claws and fangs tearing into me though, I heard a clang, and then the sound of a body collapsing. I peered through my hands to see Verde standing over me holding a parasol. Valentine was on the floor, clutching the back of her head in agony.

"Come on, let's go before she wakes up!" Verde said, pulling me up by my upper arm. He yelped, letting go of me immediately. "Why are you so hot?"

"W-what?!" I yelped, my face going red.

"No! As in, you're _literally_ hot!" I looked back at Valentine who was starting to get up.

"Can we talk about this later?" Verde nodded his head, and we both started sprinting away from the beach, heading towards the roads and beachside villas. The sand was seriously slowing us down, and I could tell that Valentine was right behind us.

Verde pulled out a tiny brown bag from his pocket. He pulled out a bunch of tiny red seeds, like grains of rice, and chucked them over his shoulder. I wasn't sure why until I heard a thud behind us. I looked over my shoulder to see that Valentine had fallen over, tripped by a set of khaki coloured vines that had somehow grown out of the sand and wrapped themselves around her ankles. They didn't look very tough though, because she began pulling and tearing them apart fairly quickly.

"Stop looking, keep running!" he gasped once we finally hit concrete and tarmac. I could now see the rest of my class and other vacationers at the other side of the beach. I'm not sure if they noticed the hydra and ran, or just seemed to aimlessly drift away from us in a group somehow. Either way, I didn't have time to think about it any longer as Verde grabbed my arm and headed for the road. I didn't know that he could move so fast, especially with his weird muscle condition. Actually, I started doubting the muscle thing when one of his shoes fell off. He cursed loudly, but kept running or trotting or whatever weird movements he was making, but instead of hearing the pat of soft feet on cement, I heard the clopping of a hoof. I screamed, pulling my hand away from him.

"You're a vampire thing too!" I screamed.

"What?" he looked down at his leg. "No! I'm a satyr, _she's_ the vampire. I mean, empousa! You're going to die if you don't follow me, you know that?"

Miss Valentine was starting to catch up now, so I guess my little freak out ruined what little chance we had of escape. Verde swore loudly and pulled out another bag, this one green with a flower pattern on it. Inside were a bunch of strange looking green beans, and they were squirming and jumping about even as he tried reaching in for them. One of them nearly hopped out of the pouch. He pulled out two and hurled them at the ground between us and Valentine. As soon as they touched the concrete, they began sprouting, thick green vines digging into the pavement and cracking it while other vines rose upwards and around in a great green tangled mess. It took less than five seconds, but already there was a thick and thorny barricade between us and Valentine.

We turned on our heels and ran, not looking back once even as she screamed in rage.

"You… got a plan?" I asked between breaths.

"Improvising as I go." I spotted a taxi driving in the street, and in a split – second of stupidity, ran right in front of it, screaming for him to stop. He screeched to a halt, stopping just as it hit me slightly, sending me careening over the hood and to the tarmac road to its left. My body felt like it was going to fall to pieces, but I stood up again anyway, even as he was honking his horn and swearing angrily at me.

"Vee, cash!" I shouted. He fished out a few dollar bills from his pocket and we both leaped into the taxi.

"Hey, watch where you're going you stupid kids!" he yelled at us. "You could have been hurt, or even damaged my car!" Verde ignored him, handing him a wad of cash.

"Then this will make it up to you," he said. "Get us out of here. Anywhere but here!" He grabbed the money and counted it up quickly. I looked out the window to see Valentine still struggling with the giant vines, but she was cutting them down faster than they could grow. It wouldn't be too long before she'd torn through all of them and was after us again.

"Please hurry," I said. I guess the panic in my voice was a little too obvious because he turned around and gave me a mischievous grin.

"You'll have to pay extra for that little missy," he said with his palm upturned. Verde glared at him, then at me, before handing him a few more coins and a two dollar bill. He turned back to the wheel and floored it.

Rules of the road or not, this guy was tearing down the streets like a maniac. He skidded past a big black SUV, drifted around a corner and floored it until he hit a red light and saw a police car waiting at it. I'm not sure how he was evading the cops, but he was driving like a racer, stopping for next to nothing until finally he was far enough from the area that he could slow down. Unless Miss Valentine could fly, there was no way she was catching up.

"Vee, what's going on?" I asked.

"Well, that's a bit of a funny story you see," he said nervously. "Do you ever see weird stuff that nobody seems to notice for some reason? You know, like the supernatural? Ghosts and demons, that monster hiding in your closet…."

"What, like some kind of second sight thing?" I asked. "That sounds a little bit…."

"Okay, how about this. Do creepy monsters keep trying to _attack_ you? Particularly giant ones?" I wasn't sure how much I wanted to say before Vee would start thinking that I was crazy. Then I remembered that he had a pair of goat legs. He probably had a high tolerance for weird.

"There was the giant snake that flooded my classroom in third grade," I said. "And there were those other fire breathing snake things I found outside of my house… and on a trip to Canada with my dad, I once saw this really tall giant thing, but nobody else could see it…. And then there was my new best aquatic friend there…."

"That was a hydra. Seemed to be on the small side, but that's what it was. Miss Valentine on the other hand is an empousa. The pattern here is that they're all mythical creatures, mainly from Greek myth."

"So I keep seeing fantasies?" I asked. The way he was saying this, it sounded like I was starting to lose it.

"Not fantasies, but realities. Those myths, they're real. Greek gods and goddesses, heroes and monsters, all of that is real. And you're a part of them too."

"So you've lied to me this entire time!" I yelled. "I kept telling you about seeing this stuff and you didn't believe me!"

"I had to! The less aware you are, the less monsters attack you! I was doing you a favour!" It definitely didn't feel like it though. Suddenly, I thought back to my encounter with Miss Valentine earlier, about something she'd said.

"Miss Valentine called me a Half – Blood. So, does that mean I'm half human, half monster?" Vee shook his head. It didn't look like he really knew how to explain it.

"That's not likely. Half – monsters that look human… well, I've never heard of it happening before."

"So, what am I?" Vee stared at me until I began to feel uncomfortable.

"With powers like that, do you really need to ask?"

"Yes, I do. Why the heck would that tell me anything?!" Verde sighed in exasperation.

"Man, humans really don't know how to use their heads, do they? You're a demigod. Half human, half Greek god. Or at least I _think_ you're Greek. It's hard to tell nowadays." I was stunned into silence, my mouth hanging slightly ajar. My pupils were probably dilated in shock, and I felt my muscles go lax. "Wow, you're taking this better than I thought!" Vee said cheerfully. I caught the taxi driver's expression in the rear view mirror, and he looked a little bit concerned, but he kept driving anyway.

"Anyway, stuff like this is normal for demigods," Vee continued. "Monsters and creeps are always trying to cut their lives short. So it's my job to make sure that kids like you don't bite the dust early, and escort you to the one place in this country where you can be safe. Well, relatively speaking."

"And where's that?" I asked, finally finding my voice again. It sounded soft and diminished when I said it out loud.

"Well, the only place that you can learn _anything_ if you're a twelve year old. Summer camp!"

 **AN: So, that's the beginning of Part II! This actually took me a really long time to write (all of Part II has taken a long time but I think I've got my groove!) because it was tricky to get used to writing from Ludmila's perspective. Anyway, I'm just taking this time now to say thanks to all the favourites and follows I've received! I normally reply to all my reviews or leave a little shoutout in the next chapter if I don't, so I never really give any shoutout or thanks for favs and follows... I feel like it will be a bit awkward if I just make a huge list now though... So I'll do three at a time until I catch up then! Starting with follows! Shoutout to the first follower, _Exodus of Chaos_! Thanks for all the love! _foraslanthelion_ too, thank you so much! And _tsilver_ , my loyal bro who always spots my bad writing before I can allow it to flourish! Thanks for the support guys! Reviews make the world go round, but knowing that somebody liked it enough to have it publicly displayed as a fav is awesome!**


	12. NO CAMPERS ALLOWED

**Merry Christmas everybody! I'm writing this (well, this author note) around twelve midnight on Christmas, and I want to take this time to say that I hope you all have an awesome Christmas and an epic New Years! I wanna say thanks to all of you for your support! It's been a lot of fun writing this fic, and even though I know it's not too popular compared to some getting hundreds of reviews, I'm grateful for all the support that I've gotten for this one! I also wanna thank** **OmniX7 for following this! Just knowing you enjoyed it enough to try follow it is awesome! Also** **WiseGirlGeek for favouriting this, especially since I like her stories quite a bit! A lot of them are short stories and drabbles like _evil? Well, it doesn't die_ for a start, but if you're worried about this fandom and how active it is, or even if you aren't, then I recommend you go check out _Dark Times Must End_! Anyway, let the story begin!**

 **CHAPTER 12: NO CAMPERS ALLOWED (Riley's thoughts)**

I didn't realise that waiting could be so frustrating. After making an epic speech about taking down the enemies of the gods themselves, after going on about training until our bodies broke and our bones shattered, I was freaking bored of waiting. I thought that after what we'd gone through, that we'd be able to return to camp like heroes, tell of our stories with the light of the bonfires to our backs as we re-enacted all of our greatest scenes. I thought everybody would be inspired by our heroism, and that Chiron or Rachel would give us the next step to our epic quest, and we would train our mind and bodies until we could move mountains. Then we would take the fight to the enemy and save the day. I got the first part right at least.

For a day or two, there were cheers all around, and we got to burn our own funeral shrouds that they made for us (you know, just in case we came back in body bags). But after that, camp continued as usual. No new information or quests came in for us. Camp went back to normal, and we got on with our usual, everyday tasks and chores. We organised events and capture the flags. We ate smores and told ghost stories. It was just… _ordinary_. Even when I started to pester Chiron about our next quest, he told me that it wasn't all about going on missions. That I should get settled again, and try to enjoy the peace while it lasted. That was probably low key for 'sorry, you're not going on the next quest. Deal with it. Want a marshmallow?'

Honestly, I was getting tired of sitting around waiting for something that would never happen. And that's why I was so pumped up once capture the flag started up.

The teams were simple: the Ares cabin on one side versus the Athena on the other. On our side were the Hephaestus, Demeter, and Apollo cabins, whilst the other side had the Hermes, Hypnos, Dionysus and Aphrodite cabins. The mismatch looked like a bad joke. We had all the strongest cabins, the best fighters, the greatest archers. Their army sounded more like they were ready for a slumber party. I shrugged my shoulders and just accepted it as our flag bearers brought in our expertly painted flag: blood red with a spear and boar's head. Now the only question was what to do with Zach.

Nobody wanted to pick Zach. He worked fine in teams, but he was easily the worst fighter in the entire camp. He wasn't fast either, so that made him a bad scout. Sure, he could summon monsters and demons, but he could only use two at a time, and Camp Half – Blood was full of kids who had trained their entire lives just to _kill_ monsters. Unless he commanded them to rip out our throats, they weren't really that effective. Obviously, nobody wanted the dead weight. Sure, he was part of the Hermes cabin, but he wasn't even a demigod. Nobody knew which side he was meant to be.

"You guys can take him," Adam said, speaking for the Aphrodite kids. "You guys are stronger, he'll be safer on that side."

"Nah, he can get wrecked on your side," Wyatt, an Ares kid, replied. "I wanna win. That's not happening with this kid, unless we use him as bait." Zach tried not to let it show, but he clearly looked miserable. I couldn't blame him really. After going his whole life thinking that as a hunter, he was somebody special, that he could handle anything, here he was in the middle of a camp where everybody looked down at him just because he was mortal. Still, I didn't feel bad enough to volunteer for him to join. Instead, Reika stepped forward, patting him firmly on the back.

"Welcome to the club, Zach!" she yelled. "You're on our side!" There were a few cries of protest from the rest of her team, but that didn't stop her from pulling him to the Athena table with the rest of the team. Zach also looked surprised, and became particularly worried once he spotted the rest of the Ares cabin.

"Reika, I'll get torn to pieces!"

"Don't worry, you've been working on something, right?"

"Yeah, but I haven't tested it out yet…."

"Well, now's your chance to test it! You got this!" Zach didn't seem quite as sure, but it didn't seem like he had much of a choice. With teams decided and the flags ready, Chiron banged his hoof on the pavilion floor.

"Heroes!" he cried out. "You know the rules, your boundary is the creek, with the whole forest as your battlefield. Magic and magic items are allowed, but you may not kill or cause grievous injury! The goal is to steal the other team's flag and bring it to your own flag. You may not hide your flag, it must be in clear sight! I shall serve as your referee and battlefield medic. Now, prepare for battle!" He spread out his hands and all the tables were covered in weapons, armour, and miscellaneous bits and bobs. I didn't need anything more than my gauntlets, but I took the Scythian shield I stole from my last battle, and a double bladed axe.

"Red team, forward!" Wyatt yelled. We all erupted into roars as we headed towards battle. My blood coursed with excitement, and I couldn't stand still for more than a second. Just before I could disappear into the forest, I took a look back at the dining pavilion. Ash was still seated at the table, examining a dagger that was left behind. She never really liked fighting. Actually, I'd never seen Ash fight even once. So she always sat out capture the flag.

I ignored it as we continued our march through the forest, all of us getting into position. I was gonna be with the vanguard, clearing a path straight for the flag. Wyatt rested a heavy hand on my shoulder.

"Riley, calm down," he said.

" _You_ are telling me to calm down?" I said incredulously. Ares kids aren't known for being the rational type.

"That's a sign that you need to chill. You've been on edge lately. If you slip up because you can't think clearly, and cost us the victory…." I pushed his hand off of me.

"Yeah, I've got this. No worries." In the distance, I heard the conch blow, signalling the start of the game. I shot off towards the enemy flag, leaving Wyatt and the others behind me. I could already smell blood waiting to be spilled. The fighting started instantly.

I heard an arrow whistling through the air, and just barely managed to put my shield up in time to stop it. These were dummy arrows, with blunt heads, but they still hurt enough that you didn't want to get hit. I blocked two more, following the source of the arrows to an Aphrodite kid, a helmet with a blue plume planted on her head.

I slammed my shield into her face, sending her to the ground like a rock. Two more kids appeared from the bushes around her, thrusting and stabbing at me. I parried all their blows with ease, then swung my axe at them. Their armour saved them from the brunt of the attack, but they still went careening through the air, falling in a heap on the ground. I swung again, but this time the third kid rolled out of the way. Instead, my axe landed with a _thunk_ in the trunk of a tree, and went out the other side, felling it in one swoop.

"Whoa! Calm down!" the kid said. "You could have killed me!"

"Shut up!" I roared back, spinning to deliver a roundhouse kick to his head. I knocked his helmet right off his head, and he crumpled to the ground, his eyes rolled to the back of his head. I ignored their limp bodies, and carried on towards the flag.

By this time, Wyatt had caught up to me. He seemed to have lost his spear, but there was a wild light in his eyes, as if he didn't care. We were joined by two Hephaestus kids on our left, and a Demeter kid. Entire squadrons stepped up to stop us, but we bulldozed through them like they were bowling pins. It didn't take long before we could see the enemy flag up ahead.

"There it is!" Wyatt roared, even as he punched a poor kid into the creek. "Let's go!" Apart from that one kid who was now splashing his way to the shore, it was way too peaceful, but I couldn't think about that. The goal was right in front of us. And that's when it started. A sound like a giant spit ball slamming into somebody. And like that, a Hephaestus kid was down, a large red patch on his breastplate. The Demeter kid cried out in alarm before she got hit in the head, going down like a rock. Whatever it was, it was small and fast, like a bullet….

"What's happening?" I roared. The Hephaestus kid tried to get up, but this time received a bullet right between the eyes. I held up my shield and shuffled towards him. The first shot left a red splotch, but this one was bright yellow. "I don't believe it… paintballs?" Something the size of a grape with the force of a cannon hit me in the shoulder. I cried out in pain as I hit the ground, making myself as low as possible. Wyatt was too slow though, as he got a paintball in the head that sent him tumbling into the creek. He landed with a splash, the still wet pink paint spreading around the water as he was carried downstream. In mere seconds, our squad was nearly decimated.

"Sniper!" I screamed. "Keep your shields up!" Most of my squad was knocked out and didn't hear me, but the two people who could still stand were scrambling for cover.

"Riley!" Wyatt choked as he clawed his way out of the creak. "Get behind cover and wait for backup!" I didn't hear him. I was too busy looking for the sharpshooter. That's when I spotted the lens flare, the glint hidden beneath the trees that gave away a scope. The scope of a sniper rifle. Out of the hundred plus kids in Camp Half – Blood, I only knew one person who would use a gun at a capture the flag match.

"Are you too much of a coward to face me?!" I roared, a red haze covering my vision. I could feel the bronze gauntlets on my hands. I was going to destroy him.

"Riley, wait!" Wyatt yelled, but I was already setting off at a sprint, his voice a murmur in the distance. I tried to ignore the paintball shells slamming into me, my limbs becoming coated in all the colours of the rainbow. I hurled my shield like a discus at the glint. The disc shredded through three trees, but the glint disappeared, its user probably leaping out of the way of the projectile. My shield embedded itself in a thick oak tree. That was okay. I didn't need a shield.

I saw a small sapling to my side and grabbed that instead, ripping it out of the ground. I couldn't see him clearly, but I knew where the sniper was going. I could hear him rustling through the grass.

"I see you!" I roared, chucking the sapling in an arc towards a small bush. It landed, roots first, into the ground, as if it had never moved in the first place, and I heard a guttural sound. I'd hit my target. That had to be Zach, only he would have failed to dodge such an obvious attack. My vision was blurry, but I could see my target clearly as I approached him. It was definitely Zach, trying to extract himself from the branches and roots, his giant paintball sniper rifle covered in grime. Leaves and twigs were attached to his body as camouflaged and he was wearing a leaf green beanie. He looked up to see me approaching and yelped in shock. He pulled himself up and rolled out of the way just as I swung my axe at his head.

"Riley! Calm down!" he said. "You're going to kill me!"

"That's the point!" I swung my axe again, ripping it through his armour, but it went straight through his flesh like he was a ghost. Luckily, he also forgot that mortals don't get hurt by celestial bronze, because his shock gave me just enough time to kick his legs out from beneath him. I didn't even give him a chance to move, kicking and stomping on him, stepping all the harder every time he tried to defend himself. I didn't even notice that my aura was starting to disappear.

Before I knew it, a stocky fat camper had tackled me to the ground. I kicked him off with ease, but not before he had cut a gash in my arm with a knife. For one confused second, I laid still, confused that I could bleed. Zach was getting back to his feet, though with a slight limp now, wiping the blood off of his split lip.

"I can't believe that worked," he muttered. "Feel any different, Riley? Perhaps a little sleepy?" I felt fine, but my aura was gone. I stood up and turned to him in rage, swinging a fist at him. He ducked beneath it and grabbed my wrist and elbow. In the next instant, I was on my back, looking up at the sky. He pinned me down, the stocky kid running over to help as I kicked and thrashed, screaming abuse at him the whole time.

"She's too strong!" the camper cried.

"Keep her still, Clovis," Zach said. "Just long enough for…." A conch blew, and everybody from the blue side erupted into cheers. Zach reluctantly let go of me. I sprang to my feet and looked around. Standing next to the blue flag was Reika, holding up our flag in triumph, the art on it changing to a Caduceus, the symbol of the Hermes cabin. Zach let out a sigh of relief.

"What? What happened?" I asked in shock. "You guys… won?!" Zach turned to me, his smile slightly twisted over his swollen face. He was holding a green paintball pellet between his fingers.

"An interesting concoction made by the alchemists of Hermes and Hypnos. Each shot is a potent tranquiliser. If I can't hurt you, then I just have to rely on less conventional methods. I'm surprised you're still standing." I clenched my fists in rage. I was beaten? By _Zach_?

People were starting to gather now, cheering in triumph or congratulating each other, or just sulking bitterly as they threw their weapons to the ground. I still couldn't believe that we were beaten by a bunch of second rate demigods. Even though my aura had cleared, I still felt like something needed to be broken, and the nearest target was….

Before I realised it, I felt my knuckles connect with flesh and bone. In that one split second, I could see Zach's face contort in horror before my fist rubbed it out, and then he was sailing through the air, slamming into a tree with the crunch of bone against bark.

"Riley!" Reika screamed, running towards Zach to check on him. The noise from the other campers started to die down as they realised that something was wrong. I could hear the other Ares campers cheering and howling like idiots when they saw Zach's limp body against a tree, with me standing opposite him, my fist still extended. Reika dashed towards me instead, clearly enraged. "What was that for?!" she asked.

"He had it coming," I growled, although I was starting to calm down now.

"He's _mortal_ , Riley! We can't just give him ambrosia and expect him to be fine! What if your gauntlets were still on? He would be _dead!_ "

"But he's not, so it's fine…." Now that my vision wasn't clouded by blood and thunder, what I had just done was starting to catch up to me. The front of Zach's new _Camp Half – Blood_ shirt was covered in blood, and he was unmoving.

Zodiac teleported to his side and tried to shake him out of his stupor. He blinked a few times, blood gushing from his nose. Zodiac held up a few fingers and Zach answered correctly.

"That, was actually kinda hot," he whispered, a little too loudly, while looking at me. Zach nodded his head before his chin slumped against his chest. I didn't even have time to be mad at either of them because Wyatt had caught up to me by now.

"I told you to wait," he said. "They were coming with our flag. I wanted you to help intercept them until we could get backup to get their flag. We could have stopped them!"

"We would have been sniped anyway," I said, defending myself, but I knew he was right. I let my temper get ahead of me again, and this time, my strength wasn't enough to get me through it. Chiron appeared from the forest, a bow slung over his back and a black and white referee shirt. In less than a second, it looked like he had analysed the whole situation when he turned to look at me. I was sure he was gonna say something when a crash sounded in the direction of the entrance to Camp Half – Blood. Chiron gave me a look that said _we will talk about this later_ , and then turned to all the others.

"Get Zach immediate medical attention. The rest of you, stay on guard! It's time to check on the disturbance…."

* * *

Honestly, I was pretty excited. I was expecting to see an alien invasion or that we were being bombarded by meteor hurling giants. All I saw was Argus in a black van with two passengers. Except the van was on its side, and the two passengers were a satyr in a trucker cap, and a very scared looking little girl. Placed just behind the van was a large crater with a pile of ash in the middle. Argus was in the process of climbing out of the van, more or less unscratched, but the other two were stood at the lip of the crater, looking in.

"Verde, you've returned," Chiron said. The satyr turned towards Chiron with a smile. He was dressed in stupidly baggy jeans and a tank top (as if he had muscles to show).

"Yo, Chiron," he said. "I found a wild demigod." The girl turned away from the crater. Her brown eyes looked terrified, and her chocolate coloured hair was littered with split ends. The giant sunhat she was wearing didn't do a good job of hiding that. She was dressed in a camp shirt that was two sizes too big, and a pink pair of pear patterned shorts. "This, is Ludmila. And _that_ ," he gestured at the crater, "was an ogre with a Greek fire backpack. They aren't with us anymore."

"Excellent work, Verde," Chiron said, before turning his attention to the girl. "And _you_ , my child… the past few days must have been overwhelming for you."

"Yeah, overwhelming. That's one way of putting it," she replied. Her brave face wasn't fooling anybody. She sounded like she was about to burst into tears at any moment. "Can I get something to drink? Something cold preferably." Chiron nodded his head, and gestured to a few of the Apollo campers.

"Jenny, Will, check on Argus, Verde, and our newest guest. Prepare some ambrosia too. They might seem fine, but it's always good to be cautious." They began to escort them into camp. She looked completely awestruck, staring at the giant dragon resting by Thalia's tree at Half – Blood Hill, and then the giant statue of Athena that had been placed next to it. If she was surprised now, I'd love to see her face when she saw the rest of camp. Now the excitement was starting to die down, people were naturally drifting back towards their cabins. Rumours of Zach's near – death experience and the new camper's possible lineage spreading like wildfire. I was just about ready to head back to the Ares cabin myself when I spotted Ash heading towards me.

Her lips were pursed in a narrow line of disapproval.

"Hey, Ash," I said. "You heard about CTF yet?"

"You know that what you did was wrong, right?" Ash said. It was more of a statement than a question. I wanted to tell her to shut up. That it was satisfying to let out some steam. But I couldn't. I couldn't even look her in the eyes (err, eyelids). She was right. It was uncalled for. Bad enough I tore him to pieces, I didn't have to hit him again after the match was over. "Riley, what's wrong? You haven't been yourself ever since you came back from that quest."

"I'm fine. I'm just stressed out, that's all."

"Really? Because if that's all, I can still help. I'm your friend, Riley, it's what I do. You can tell me anything." I hesitated for a moment. Here I was, acting like the biggest jerk ever, pummelling my friends and terrorising children, and Ash wasn't mad at me. Instead, she was _concerned_. Even after watching me gang up on one of the first timers with my siblings, putting them through the 'initiation', even after I broke half of the Apollo cabin's bows out of spite, she was _still_ trying to help me out. She was trying to listen to me, find out what was wrong. Not run away or call me a bully.

I'm not sure what I would have said before Chiron trotted towards me.

"Riley. We need to talk." His face had no joy or mirth in it. I gulped nervously, and followed him towards the Big House. I looked back one more time over my shoulder. Ash looked worried, but she nodded her head. I held back my nerves and went after Chiron.

* * *

I sat with my hands on my knees, my whole body shrinking within itself. I'd only ever been inside the Big House three times, and never for anything good. The first was for setting fire to the lava climbing wall, rocky bits included, until the fire spread and nearly burned down half the camp (I thought it would make it more challenging). The second was for bullying Ash from before we were friends, even at camp where she was supposed to be safe. This was the third time, and I was afraid it would be my last.

Chiron had settled into his wheelchair to make it easier for him to move around, and his brow was furrowed in deep thought, his chin in his right hand. It looked like he was trying to mimic _The Thinker_.

"A sprained ankle," he said. I was so busy now trying to compare him to Abraham Lincoln that I was genuinely startled when he started speaking. "Multiple bruises along his lower arms, numerous lacerations across his torso, back _and_ front, a broken nose, and a concussion. I'm actually surprised he came out in such good condition." I lowered my head. I didn't want to look in his eyes, but I could just tell that he was disappointed in me. I'd broken camp rules, and someone got hurt because of it.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, not feeling too brave anymore. "Is Zach gonna be okay?" I wanted to go check on him, make sure he was alright, but he probably didn't want to see me.

"The biggest blow dealt was to his pride," Chiron said. "But we're not talking about him right now. This is about you."

 _Great. Here it comes…._ Chiron looked over his shoulder at the door behind him.

"Clarisse, come in here for a moment."

"C-Clarisse?" I stuttered. Clarisse entered the room, looking like she was prepped for a war. She was wearing khaki green trousers, the legs tucked into big brown combat boots. She wore a really heavy looking combat jacket with an Ares cabin emblem on the breast pocket. She looked like she could bench press tanks. Normally, Clarisse didn't like to get involved in anything. Ever since the rest of the campers from her time left, she was only the Ares cabin counsellor during the summer. After that, she would disappear for the rest of the year and leave it to Sherman Yang, the 'official' Camp Counsellor for the Ares cabin.

"Looks like you've got a little bit of a problem," she said, "and I've been enlisted to fix it." I stared at her for a few seconds, a little confused as to what was going on.

"Riley, I understand that you've been feeling agitated," Chiron said. "Ever since you came back, you've been upset about what happened in the Nevada desert."

"I'm not upset!" I roared.

"Whatever you say, kid," Clarisse replied. "But I've been on a few quests myself. I know the feelings. Running off on an awesome quest, trying to win back glory, be the hero for once, and you find you're not able to do a thing. Beaten down by that one monster or thing that got the better of you. Having to be saved by somebody else. The battlefield is no place for a loser, kid. If you're an Ares kid, you either win, or you die trying. Something like that, right?"

I clenched my teeth until my jaw felt stiff. I had all the respect in the world for Clarisse, but here she was, telling me straight to my face that I was a loser. That I was meant to die on that battlefield. That if I couldn't handle myself, there was no point to even being there. What hurt the most was that she was right.

"I'm not just some 'kid', Clarisse," I snarled. "And I didn't lose." She rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, I forgot. You ran away. Cowards live longer after all."

"I am _not_ a coward!"

"So you go around beating the crap out of your friends instead? _Mortal_ friends? You've just been lashing out at the people around you, and while it's fun to see the chaos you'll cause, it's still _my_ problem at the end of the day. And if something becomes _my_ problem, it's automatically _your_ problem too." I stayed silent, mainly because I didn't trust my tongue to say anything that wouldn't get me in even more trouble.

"I'm going to assign Clarisse as your mentor," Chiron said. "I understand that being a demigod can be hard at times, and it's hard to get other people to understand what you're going through. If you bottle up your problems and resentment, then more incidents like today will occur, and with them will come consequences. That's why I want Clarisse to monitor you. As much as I would love it if you could come tell me when something is bothering you, it might help if you have somebody who's closer in age to you, perhaps one of your siblings. And so, here is Clarisse."

I looked at Clarisse, who was grinning evilly, as if thinking of all the chores she could get me to do for her. For some reason, it irritated me that Chiron wanted somebody to 'watch' me, like I was some kind of troubled kid. But at the same time, I understood why. Truthfully, I really _was_ on edge lately, and Clarisse was cool enough that she probably wouldn't put up on one of those fake smiles my school councillors always wore. And she probably couldn't be _too_ hard on her own siblings.

"Alright, fine," I agreed. "So I just have to let Clarisse follow me around, right?"

"Think again, pipsqueak," she said, ruffling my hair. "You don't _let_ me do anything. You don't have a choice! Plus, you still broke the rules. No maiming during CTF."

"You tried to stab Percy Jackson with your electric spear," I pointed out. "You even tried drowning him before you knew he was the son of Poseidon."

"Please, we were young and stupid," she said, dismissing it like it was nothing. "And besides, he came out fine. The mortal didn't. So if I were you, I would get out a mop and bucket."

"A mop? What're you talking about-"

"You're stuck on stable cleaning duty for the next two weeks," Chiron said. "The younger cleaning harpies still aren't used to their jobs, and can't tell the difference between food, and pegasi. So instead, you'll be taking care of that until they can be trained. Be careful not to take too long. The harpies might decide to snack on you instead."

"What?! But Chiron…."

"Rules are still rules, Riley. And there are consequences for breaking them." Even now, I could already smell the stables. I was not going to have a pleasant two weeks…. "You can go now. You should probably get yourself freshened up after the day you've had. Oh, and when Zach comes to, you should probably go and check on him. After all, it is your fault that he's in recovery mode."

As soon as I left the Big House, I felt my limbs slowly turning to jelly. I felt like he had let me off a lot easier than he should have. I wasn't really sure why, but I wasn't going to go back and ask him to change his mind. I headed for the Ares cabin, and after a _really_ long shower, collapsed on my bed, and fell asleep. That was probably not my best decision.

* * *

 _I was standing in the middle of a park. Except that nothing was moving. The birds had frozen in the air, like they were trapped in glass. People were frozen in mid – step, as if caught in a freeze frame. A man in a tracksuit was stumbling over backwards, about to fall into a pond (how he got there, I don't know), with a girl in the middle of a dive to catch him, and probably fall in with him. There was no movement, and no sound, except for the repetitive tap of shoes on cobblestone behind me._

" _Looks like I'm getting better," a voice said, from the same direction as the footprints. "At this rate, not even the gods will be able to stop me…." I turned around to face it, but as I turned, the whole world began to fall away around me, collapsing outwards like it was just a backdrop, a giant cardboard box. As it fell away, I was now standing in a very different scene._

 _Instead, I was standing in the middle of what must have once been a city street, flames bursting from the ground all around me, cars abandoned in the middle of the street, some torn into so many pieces that they weren't even recognisable. The rubble of a line of stores was on my right, while on my left was nothing but a crater, bits of highway and steel bars jutting out from within it like a giant twisted ribcage. The sky looked like somebody had spilled a giant palette across it with every shade of blue imaginable, splashing great streaks of aquamarine right next to midnight indigoes._

 _Opposite the great chasms of fire, across a fissure that had dug itself into the ground, was a light unlike any other, every colour imaginable shining from within, and more that were not. I could just barely make out the vague outline of a human inside it, and the outline of a great pair of wings coming from its back, still curled as if unused to their own freedom. They unfurled with the sound of realities ripping, space itself warping around them. Doors broke and mirrors shattered, tires burst and cracks spread across the ground. I held up my hands to save myself, but I was tossed like a ragdoll, flung across the street as easily as a kite through the air._

 _I landed with a sickening crunch against a totalled SUV, the car door twisting in a Riley shaped dent. All the wind in my lungs left me at once. My back felt like it had been snapped in two, my lungs like they had been pulled inside out. I tried to get up, but my limbs refused to listen. My vision was going dark, but the light seemed just as bright as ever._

" _Welcome to the beginning of the end!" it yelled, but I couldn't tell whether it was coming from within my head, or the light itself. "It has been_ so long _! How many millennia has it been?" I opened my mouth to speak, but it sounded like the wind was snatching the words out of my mouth. Whatever I said, he seemed to have heard it. "Well, aren't we confident? Then I suppose you're willing to go for another round?" I wasn't even willing to stand up, but the light moved towards me anyway, its wings setting fire to everything that came near them. My eyes widened in horror as it held up the semblance of a hand towards my face. I heard another voice in the distance, quiet at first, then sharp and urgent, cutting through my head like a knife._

I awoke with a start as Clarisse kicked me out of my bed.

"Wake up!" My eyes fluttered open, startled out of the nightmare. I was in a cold sweat, and my dream was still burned into my eyelids. I was also now in a pile of sheets on the floor. "It's dinner. Try not to miss meals." I blinked the sleep out of my eyes.

"Did you have to _kick_ me out of bed?" I grumbled, though I was just grateful that I wasn't stuck in that nightmare.

"Well I didn't want to touch you. You drool in your sleep." I extricated myself from the blankets and headed after her. I was done with strange events and excitement for one day. I just wanted to eat, and then figure out what to do for the rest of the night (since sleeping wasn't an option if it meant another nightmare like that).

But when we approached the dining pavilion and were greeted with a hushed silence, whispers and muted gasps replacing cheers and gossip, I knew that my wish wouldn't be granted.

When we got closer, we both stopped in our tracks, now spotting what had caused the disruption. Floating above the new girl's head was a symbol of power, a mark to show that she had been claimed by a god or goddess. The problem was _which_ symbol of power.

It was bright orange and rotating slowly, a bright flame burning with logs placed within it and a big arch over the top of it. It looked a little bit like a fireplace. The symbol was hovering over the new girl, Ludmila, and she was luminescent, as if her skin had been turned to celestial bronze. She looked terrified, looking around and trying to figure out why everybody was staring at her.

"This can't be good," I said. "Clarisse, that symbol…."

"That's right, kid," she said, a grim expression on her face. "That symbol of power belongs to Hestia, the maiden goddess of the hearth."

 **Okay, still going through follow shoutouts. PercyJacksonGreekFreak, thanks for all the love! Jay Hayden, hope you're enjoying this! And remind me to get back to my Digimon fic some time! And Pocketleaf too! (I don't know why but I keep thinking that username sounds like some kind of grass type pokemoon!) Anyway, I'm out until next week Saturday! (Or as in this case, Sunday)**


	13. A WILD GODDESS APPEARED

" _ **And so we beat on, boats against the current… Tomorrow, we will run faster! Stretch out our arms farther! And one fine morning…." –**_ **Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby**

" _ **Shoutout to everyone who pledged to keep the bread coming/ Shoutout to people in school that actually read something"**_ **– Dee-1**

 **Dunno why I wrote that, just kinda what I feel like looking to 2017 I guess? Anyway, Happy New Year everybody! Goodbye to 2016 and all the chaos and confusion. Don your quill sword and eraser boxing gloves, get ready to face the future armed with your dreams! Hehe, that was such an anime line… I think I wanna use that in a chapter somewhere….**

 **Shout out to VCRx for following, and on** _ **Christmas!**_ **I'll take that as a Christmas present! And now I wanna get out my old VCR and marathon my old** _ **Power Rangers in Space**_ **cassettes….**

 **CHAPTER 13: A WILD GODDESS APPEARED (Reika's PoV)**

"Hey, Zach," I said softly as I stepped into the sickbay. He had seen better days, but even with his face swollen up and an ice pack on his forehead, he tried to smile as he saw me enter. His mattress was propped up so he was half sitting up in bed, a journal on his lap and a pen in his hand. His right leg was raised, resting on a large cushion, and an icepack was next to his ankle, an empty pillowcase between his foot and the ice. If he was a demigod, he would have recovered in two days thanks to some ambrosia. But since he was more on the human side, he probably wasn't going anywhere soon.

"Hey, you actually visited," he croaked. Even ignoring the lumps on his face, he looked tired and downtrodden. I felt my heart sink a little at the sight. I wasn't used to seeing my friends getting hurt. Well, not for a long time anyway.

"I got you something to make you feel better," I said.

"Aww, you got me flowers? You shouldn't have."

"As if. You can get your own flowers." Truthfully, I was actually going to get him some deep red carnations. But it felt weird when I was about to get them, and the Demeter kids kept on whispering and giggling between each other when I asked for them. Instead, I pulled out my gift from behind my back: a packet of marshmallows with a rainbow coloured bow tied around them. His eyes lit up when he saw them, and I knew I'd made the right call.

"Reika, you're the best!" he exclaimed.

"Please. I know I am."

"I owe you forever! You're the greatest!"

"Okay, I get the idea…."

"The bards will sing tales of your good grace for generations!"

"Shut up, I get it!" I just hoped he was still too dizzy to notice my face turning red. I handed him the marshmallows, only for him to immediately tear open the packet. He pulled out four at once, paused, and passed the rest of the packet back.

"Candy tastes better when eaten with your friends," he said. "I don't believe that, but I've never tested it before. Want some?" I peered at him suspiciously. For Zach to share marshmallows was an unheard of miracle.

"Are you alright?" I asked. "Your head isn't spinning or anything, is it? How many fingers am I holding up?"

"Packet of marshmallows on sale! Going once… twice…." I laughed and sat down on the side of the bed, taking the packet before he could wolf down the rest. He popped two marshmallows in his mouth as I pulled out one, grinning like a six year old with ice cream.

"Sorry about Riley," I said. "I don't know what's up with her lately… I guess no matter what happens, she'll always be a bully…."

"Hey, don't be so hard on her," he said. "She's training, just like she said she would. She's just really… angry, that's all. She's the only person who was conscious when Samael's tablet kicked in. She probably feels like she should have been able to do more against it."

"Yeah, but she could have _killed_ you. Normal people don't go around hospitalising their friends."

"I'm not that weak! I'm not gonna die in a game of capture the flag! Anyway, as long as she doesn't trip like that on the battlefield, its fine, so drop it." I stared at him in amazement. For somebody who was normally so cold and ruthless when it came to monsters, he was surprisingly forgiving with other people. "Let's not talk about my grievous injuries. How's everybody else? Anything happen while I was out?"

I began telling him about the newest camper who arrived just a few minutes after he passed out. I also told him about how her godly parent was Hestia, the goddess of the hearth. He frowned as I said this.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but we don't have a cabin for Hestia, do we?" I shook my head.

"There's never been any need for one. Hestia is a maiden goddess. It shouldn't even be _possible_ for her to have kids."

"I dunno, the gods aren't exactly the loyal type…."

"Not unless it's an oath sworn on the river Styx. If Hestia had really broken that oath, which is unlikely, then that kid is gonna be seriously cursed for her mom's mistakes."

"Fun times, huh…." His expression turned sombre as he shoved four marshmallows into his mouth, chewing them methodically as if he was trying to find some piece of knowledge or a clue in their flavour. "Is this kinda weird stuff normal at camp?"

"Not really… the last time an oath like that was broken, Percy Jackson came to camp."

"Percy Jackson, huh? I've heard a little bit about him…."

"Yeah, he was this really powerful demigod, the child of Poseidon, one of the 'Big Three' gods of Olympus. After the Second World War, The Big Three all swore an oath not to have more kids because they were too powerful."

"If these kids were that strong, I'm surprised no one tried to kill them. Hunters get really uneasy around people with power, even if they look and act human. For years, people were hunting this other pair of hunters called the Winchesters because one of them had demon blood or something…."

"They were still normal people! You know, when you ignored the fact that they could cause natural disasters…."

"They could do _what_?"

" _Anyway,_ some of the gods broke their promise. Percy Jackson, Thalia Grace, and Jason Grace are all examples of that, and all of them were involved in prophecies that had to do with the fate of the planet."

"A little bit like now then?"

"You think this girl's important?"

"Well… yeah, maybe. The timing is too perfect. Myths crossing that aren't meant to, ancient powers arising, and now oaths being broken. Coincidence?"

"You wouldn't think so if you saw her. She looks so… _small_. She doesn't strike me as the hero type."

"Nobody does when they first start. And besides, who said she's gonna be a hero?" The way he said that sent a chill down my spine, and he looked too serious to be telling a bad joke.

"When do you think you'll be better by?" I asked, eager to change the subject.

"A day or two and I should be fine, though I'll be walking with a crutch for a few more weeks. Luckily, I've got this to keep me busy." He held up his journal for emphasis. "I guess my leave from here will be delayed until I recover…."

"You were planning on leaving?" I asked, choking on my words a bit.

"Well… yeah. I'm still looking for my Mom, remember? And my only lead turned out to be a magic rock. I have to follow up on it, look in new places, find other hunters who might know something…."

"Oh… Okay." I'd actually forgotten that he wasn't from Camp Half – Blood. The thought that he might one day just leave hadn't crossed my mind, until now. "Well, I gotta go now. Get well soon."

"Thanks for stopping by. Keep your eyes out for anything strange. Err, stranger."

I closed the door behind me, leaving him to whatever he was scribbling down. I came to cheer him up, but now I felt like _I_ was the one who needed cheering up. And that's when I ran into Ash, giving the usual Camp Half – Blood tour to a newbie. Except, this wasn't the same one I saw yesterday.

This guy had close – cropped black hair and big brown eyes that were looking around at everything in wonder. His shirt looked like it had been dyed in a rainbow. Even his jeans and sandals were a strange shade of green. Looking at the two of them together made my eyes hurt.

I dashed towards them, crossing a hundred metres in roughly three seconds, skidding to a halt next to Ash. She didn't look very startled, but the kid nearly jumped out of his skin, embarrassed squeal and everything.

"Don't do that, you'll scare someone," Ash chastised.

"Sorry, I just wanted to see what was happening," I said. "So, who's the new guy?" He waved at me, still a little wary after I appeared out of nowhere.

"This is Biko. He just arrived this morning, and I'm showing him around. He's pretty cool." I wasn't so sure. He seemed really spaced out, even by demigod standards, and he hadn't said a word since I arrived.

"One newbie yesterday, and another one today. I guess there's more demigods than normal during the summer…. Well, I'll tag along!" That way, I could miss Ancient Greek practice and have a valid (sort of) excuse. The only problem was that like most people, they were _so obscenely slow_. I'd arrive at the next spot and be waiting for five minutes for them to catch up, and every time he saw something strange, Biko stopped to stare at it or ask what it was. It felt like forever before we arrived at the combat arena. There were a few demigods practicing their sword fighting, and then removed from them all were two specific demigods.

Riley was by the edge of the arena, full blessing of Ares active, her gauntlets equipped, fist fighting with an unarmed Clarisse with no aura… and losing.

"C'mon, are you even trying?" Clarisse taunted.

"Can you freaking take me seriously for a second?!" Riley roared, hurling a punch at her face. Clarisse easily sidestepped it, using her own momentum to send Riley crashing to the ground, her arm pinned behind her back.

"Not unless you can jack up, pipsqueak," she said, clearly enjoying their fight too much. "You can't just charge at everything and expect to win. It's fun, but sometimes, it just doesn't cut it." Biko stared at the violence with wide eyes, absorbing it all.

"Don't worry," I said, "they _probably_ aren't gonna hurt each other. Demigods are really well trained." I winced as Riley was flung straight into a column, a few bricks loosening up from the impact. I thought that I might have to swallow my own words.

"That… is so _cool_ ," he said, awe dripping from his voice. "It's like something straight out of an anime! Do you train like that all the time?"

"Umm, yeah, it's pretty common if you want to survive." I looked at Ash, not really sure of what to say. She shrugged her shoulders, basically saying _this is your tour now_. "Look, it might seem really fun, but it's also pretty dangerous."

"Yeah, I could guess from the _lava climbing wall_."

"It means, that if you're not careful, or you're not paying attention, you can get seriously hurt."

"I'll learn from my mistakes. Get the first one thousand screw ups out of the system, right?" I shrugged my shoulders. It wouldn't be my problem when he got his shorts filled with lava. Riley screamed (was it in pain or rage?) as she crashed to the ground for the fourth time.

"Reika, can you finish up?" Ash asked. "I'm just gonna go check on Riley. I just need you to finish up the tour for me." I gave her the thumbs up. I just had to watch him and make sure he didn't get himself killed on his first day. No sweat.

* * *

I tried to make sure not to give him a bow again. It wasn't like he was bad. Compared to the Apollo campers he was nothing, but he could hit the target. He was better than me at least. And then he accidentally shot an arrow next to his foot, freaked out and staggered backwards, fell over and knocked over a whole quiver of arrows, scattering them everywhere and embedding one right next to my foot. He immediately bolted upright and tried apologising, stepping backwards before bumping into the person behind him. The girl fired her arrow, but it went completely wide, disappearing in the distance, accompanied by a surprised howl. Biko tumbled forward and face planted into the ground, his bow snapping as he hit the ground.

The problem wasn't even how rapidly the whole situation descended to complete disaster. It was the complete and utter silence and weight of everybody's stares as he slowly pushed himself up off the floor. I could tell with one look at him that he wanted to die.

It took everything I had afterwards to convince him that it was alright.

Then there was combat. He still needed a lot of work with a blade, but when it came to unarmed combat, he was a whole different machine. It took about two seconds and his opponent was on the floor, dazed and trying to make sure that nothing was broken. But he panicked a lot, and that was his weakness. The second he lost focus he became clumsy, tripping up a lot and freaking out when he was up against somebody a bit bigger or more skilled. At that point, the fight was over for him.

By the time we'd hit dinner time, we were returning from the nurse's ward after having taken some nectar.

"You're not exactly the most settled guy, are you?" I asked.

"Sorry," he replied. He looked so bad, that I couldn't be mad at him, even after he'd dragged me halfway across camp. "I just get really nervous when I'm not used to things. The whole demigod thing is still a lot to take in, and it's kinda freaking me out…."

"Hey, everybody has bad days," I said. "You'll get used to it all eventually. Tomorrow will be better, I promise!" He didn't look like he believed me, but he said thanks anyway.

The smell of food distracted us as we headed towards the dining pavilion. We slipped ourselves onto the Hermes dining table. I could barely sit still in my seat, bouncing a little bit as I waited for food to arrive. I looked at Biko to see if he looked the same, but he was glancing around nervously, observing everybody. Despite his goofy appearance, It looked like he was trying not to be noticed for some unseen crime.

Chiron appeared at the front of the dining pavilion, banging his hooves on the floor.

"To the gods!" he cried. I yelled it back in reply, along with the voices of like a hundred different people. I spotted the last bunch of grapes and plucked them from the tray before anybody else could grab them. I heard an uproar all around. I was going to have to keep a careful eye on my dinner plate to make sure that my food wasn't stolen from right under my nose.

After the usual rites of burning some of our food, we began to dig in, chowing and slurping on our meals with gusto. Biko began by attacking his food ferociously, but by the time we were halfway through he had returned his pace to something that was vaguely human.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "Not hungry?"

"Wlf ifts fust…." He gulped down his food first before continuing. "It's just that, the atmosphere here… something feels _really_ strange. I can't really put my finger on what it is, but it just feels… _wrong_."

"It just _feels_ wrong? I'm sorry, but you're gonna have to be more specific."

"I dunno, it's just a feeling…. It's like, everywhere I step I'm gonna set off a bomb or something like that." I didn't like the places that this conversation was going. I'd heard about something like this happening before. An older demigod who just felt out of place at Camp. If that was happening again….

"Maybe you're just getting homesick?" I asked.

"I just _left_ home," he replied. "I think it's a little early to be getting homesick."

"Well then… I dunno, just try and calm down and think about it. Everything feels strange before you know who you really are. Once that's cleared up, you'll be sorted into the proper cabin, and everything will start making more sense to you." He nodded his head, but he didn't look convinced. I returned to gulping down grapes, but now that I was thinking about it, I actually had no idea where he was from or what his parentage was in the first place. How did he even get to Camp? I know that the new girl was found normally, by a Satyr, but I didn't see how Biko arrived. For all I knew, he could have skydived into camp and introduced himself as a demigod. Nothing about him was very clear. I couldn't even guess at his heritage.

I was snapped out of my thoughts as Chiron banged his hoof on the floor again. Everybody went silent as he cleared his throat. He gave an announcement about health and safety and a whole bunch of other stuff that probably nobody actually cared about considering our ground staff find demigods to be a delicacy. It was when he got around to introducing Biko that things got interesting.

Just as Chiron was introducing him, Biko cried out in alarm. I looked at him, and then saw the reason why. Floating just above his head was a silver holographic disc the size of my plate, spinning on its axis slowly. On one side was the image of an owl with a branch next to it. But on the other side was a jagged lightning bolt between two arrows crossed over each other, four stars around the edges. Biko was looking at it nervously, scared to move an inch. A hushed tone came over the camp as everybody stared and pointed at it. I was completely speechless. There was no doubt about it. That was a symbol of power, but that symbol….

Chiron immediately trotted towards our bench. Biko looked up at him, fear plain in his eyes.

"What's going on?" he asked.

"I don't know. Just come, follow me." He stood up and the pair of them left the pavilion. Almost before they had even left, everybody started whispering amongst themselves, people tossing around gossip and theories already. I spotted Riley over at the Ares cabin, a puzzled expression on her face. I got up and glided towards her, stopping just behind her.

"Riley, something's up," I said. She jumped in alarm, then without turning around, grabbed me by the wrist and twisted, slamming my face roughly on the table. As soon as she saw that it was me, she relaxed.

"Oh, it's just you," she said. "Stop doing that!" I looked at her in confusion as she released me, rubbing my bruised jaw. I thought I rolled over to her slowly so not to scare her. I must have used my super speed without realising it. That tended to happen when I got excited. And that claiming was _definitely_ something to get excited about. "You have something you wanna say?"

"Feel like doing some investigating?" I asked.

"What, into that kid? What's there to investigate?"

"You didn't find that even a _little_ bit strange?"

"I dunno, I wasn't paying attention…." Sure enough, Riley had barely even touched her food. That was _definitely_ not normal. But right now, we had bigger stuff to worry about. I brought her up to speed about Chiron randomly snatching Biko away during dinner.

"That new kid, right?" Riley asked. "That symbol that appeared over him… that's the Mark of Athena, isn't it?"

"Yeah, at least one side was. But that other side definitely wasn't. I've never seen a symbol of power like that before. And Chiron didn't even do his little 'all hail the newbie' speech. He just grabbed him and left."

"Something weird is going on… and that means…." I nodded my head before she could even finish.

" _I_ wanna check it out. Now, are you coming or not?"

* * *

We had snuck our way to the Big House, staying just out of reach of Chiron. In hindsight, we probably didn't need to do too much sneaking since everybody else was still at the dining pavilion, but it felt right for the moment. Chiron and Biko entered the Big House, the door shutting before them. We creeped towards it, placing our ears against the door. It was muffled and hard to hear, but I could just barely make out three speakers.

"… surely you must have some kind of knowledge that can help us here," Chiron said. "What do you know about your heritage?"

"I don't know," Biko replied. "I barely know anything about demigods…. I know my dad's definitely human, but I don't know anything about my mom…."

"And yet just earlier you were claiming to be a child of Athena?" a third speaker said. I felt my blood run cold. It was none other than our Camp Activities Director, Mr. D.

Ever since the Heroes of Olympus fiasco, he had been popping in and out every now and then. I guess he had worked out a deal with Zeus about the terms of his punishment. _You're still banished here for the next fifty years! But you get the weekends off_.

"He didn't claim anything," Chiron said. "Although he _was_ claimed."

"With a false Mark of Athena?" Mr. D retorted. "I'm surprised he wasn't smote on the spot for such an insult. If that were _my_ symbol being faked, then he would be a raving lunatic with flippers right now."

"W-wait, that symbol was fake?" Biko asked. "No way, how's that possible?"

"That's what we're trying to find out now," Chiron replied. "Some things are more difficult to discern than others…. _Tò heautòn gnôna_ …."

"Umm…. To know thyself?" Biko asked. "That's ancient Greek, isn't it?"

"So, you _do_ know ancient Greek." For some reason, Chiron sounded surprised, even though all demigods knew the language.

"Yeah, my dad taught me a bit," Biko replied.

"Wait, you were taught?"

"Yeah, I'm still not that great at it though. I didn't know why he taught me at first, but it must have been because I'm a Greek demigod." There was silence from the room. I looked at Riley and I was pretty sure she was wondering the same thing. Sure, we all needed practice at the language, but since when has a Greek demigod needed to be _taught_ it from scratch?

"Biko, are you dyslexic?"

"Umm… no."

"How about any other learning disabilities? ADHD for instance?"

"ADHD? Umm, I don't think so?" Biko replied, although he now sounded suspicious and was talking slower. "Maybe though. Dad says I've got ASD though so who knows?" There was silence. I could imagine Chiron and Mr. D staring at each other with confused expressions on their faces. At least, that's what I would expect if they were even _half_ as confused as I was.

"He's not ADHD?" Riley whispered. "He's a Greek demigod. Is that even possible?" I hushed her into silence, trying to listen more. Something about all of this didn't add up.

"Biko, I-" Chiron was interrupted by a loud flash sound, like a flare going off, a blast of air and a flash of light coming out form the cracks around the door. The sound died down, leaving everything eerily quiet. Even the crickets had stopped chirping, like everyone was now listening in at the door to the Big House. I heard the sound of footsteps, strong and heavy, filled with authority.

"Are those getting closer?" Riley asked. Suddenly, the door opened inside, the two of us tumbling forward and landing on the floor, right in front of a pair of golden boots, like they were made of Imperial Gold. I looked up to see a woman dressed in a long, white sleeveless dress. Her eyes looked like the funnels of a tornado. An electric stormy grey filled with thunderbolts and lightning. It looked like they were thinking of ways to break and reconstruct me from the ground up. I was forced to look away, at anything other than her eyes. Like her curly blonde hair. It made her look a bit like a Disney princess that had dragged herself through _God of War_.

I didn't even have time to wonder how the door could have opened inwards when that door usually opened out. The figure's presence dominated the room and my thoughts. I was sure that I had never met her before, but with one glance I could already tell who this was. This was the goddess of war and wisdom, Athena.

"Chiron, you really ought to have more discipline in camp," she said. "It would prevent the children from snooping around so much."

"Hey there, Athena," Mr. D said, holding up a can of diet coke." Athena glared at him.

"Ah, Dionysus. I see you're still lounging around this place, slacking off as usual."

"Oh trust me, I'm not here by _choice_. Although I'm not sure I can say the same thing about you. What brings you here?" Athena looked around, Riley and I now unimportant as she scanned the room. I almost felt like lightning bolts were going to blast out of her eyes and blow up half the Big House. Her gaze stopped on Biko, his body paralysed as he stared up at the goddess in terror.

"You… you're the one who was claimed this evening, aren't you?" Biko's mouth was opening and shutting uselessly, but no sound came out. That just seemed to make Athena get even more irritated. "You are not my child."

"… What?" Biko's voice croaked back, infused with hurt and mixed emotions. Chiron looked on incredulously, and Mr. D looked like he had finally seen something entertaining, vines growing out of the ground and forming a seat as he sat down and watched what happened next.

"You are not worthy to be called such. As you are now, you are hardly worthy to even gaze upon my feet."

"Athena!" Chiron cried out in alarm. She glared at him, and it suddenly felt like somebody had turned up the air pressure in the room.

"Do you wish to contend this point, Chiron?" she asked, although in my head it sounded more like 'just try me, see what happens'.

"You can't just discourage the demigods like that," Chiron said, speaking carefully, as if every word were dynamite. "Biko is still new. He hasn't even begun his training. Denouncing him just because you feel he's inexperienced…."

"This has nothing to do with experience," she replied. "He is unworthy, and that is all there is to it."

"Th-that's a bit h-harsh," Biko stammered. Athena looked at him instead. It looked like he was crumpling up inside his skin, shrinking away from her piercing gaze.

"Excuse me?" she asked. Again, Biko's mouth opened, like he wanted to say something, but he couldn't even speak. Athena smirked, as if that was exactly what she had expected. "If you disagree, then prove it to me. Prove your worth as a member of the Athena cabin. Go on a quest and earn glory in my name!"

 _Something seems wrong,_ I thought to myself. Athena was never known to be friendly, but she's normally a pretty understanding goddess. To tell a rookie to go on a quest without any training… that just didn't seem fair. Not only that, but it didn't seem smart. And 'smart' was one of Athena's defining traits.

Chiron looked equally surprised.

"Is this really the best course of action?" Chiron asked. "I mean, I'm sure that you have your reasons, but I just want to understand them better. Biko has just arrived at Camp."

"I'm not going to send him out just to die," Athena replied, "He will be given time to prepare appropriately. Three days, and then he shall begin his journey, alongside the _other_ shamed camper."

"The other?"

"The one who should not exist. I am not alone when I say the gods find her presence disturbing…. This gives her a chance to prove herself, and also sends her some place safe."

"Camp Half – Blood is safe, we all know this." Athena shook her head, but she clearly didn't feel like elaborating. Instead, she addressed Biko.

"My quest for you is simple. Retrieve three items of power. Three objects of unimaginable strength, gathered and scattered across the continent. Find them, and return to Camp Half – Blood with them."

"Then you'll look at me as 'worthy'?" Biko asked. Athena smirked.

"I expect nothing but perfection from you. Anything less will be met with displeasure."

"Wow, that's a rare change," Mr. D said. "Issuing out a quest without a prophecy?" It looked a bit like Athena was struggling not to roll her eyes.

"The last trio of demigods didn't return from their quest successfully, they were summoned by shadow travel, and so their quest is still in effect. The prophecy hasn't been fulfilled either. If you truly wish, you can consult the Oracle of Delphi for this quest, but it is being issued by a goddess herself. I feel as if that is enough." Mr. D shrugged his shoulders, conceding the point. He probably didn't care that Biko would be destroyed if he went on a quest so soon.

"Umm… can I get a hint?" Biko asked. He winced as Athena's gaze burned into him again.

"There will be no 'hints' of any sort," she said. "If you really wish to claim the title of one of my children, then you will work it out on your own. I would wish you good luck, but unlike Tyche, I deal in skill, not fortune." She began to glow, bright white beams of light shining from her skin and armour. I realised just in time that she was transforming into her true form, one of pure energy. I shut my eyes just in time, and even then it was like a million suns exploding beneath my eyelids. When the light died down, I slowly opened my eyes again.

The room was filled with gently descending feathers, as white as snow, slowly dancing through the air on their descent. There were scorch marks on the ground where Athena had been standing just moments before, in the shape of an owl's face. Biko was still shielding his face, cowering from somebody who wasn't even there anymore. Chiron looked completely stunned, and Riley wasn't much better. Mr. D was taking a bored sip from his can of coke, like nothing had even happened. As soon as he was done, he looked at the damage the goddess had caused.

"Oh joy. Now the living room is going to smell like overcooked owl," he said. "I would clean it up, but I feel like I've got better things to do. Chiron, you'll find me in the kitchen, making myself a sandwich."

"Yes, of course, old friend," Chiron replied absently, still staring at the mark on the floor. He looked at Biko who was just now uncurling from his hastily formed ball on the floor.

"Well then, Biko, are you ready for your first quest?"

 **The catch up game is real… So! Shout out to Vitillia for the follow! Thanks for all the support! Also Narwhal King who has such a strange username I wish I'd called myself that! Finally, GyttDaGxd… how do I even pronounce that?! Anyway, thanks for all the suppor, it means a lot! I think I'm nearly done with follows… then I have favourites…. I shall never forget to include thanks again!**


	14. THE DEVIL JOINS THE PARTY

**Gah! I feel my chapters steadily creeping up on me! If I was updating twice a week like before I'd have to take another break but I should be fine for a bit, I'm just a lil worried…. Anyway, reviews would be much appreciated! Mainly on the part II chapters (11 upwards) because I always feel like I'm a little shaky on these ones, but I can't judge my own writing that great, so anything you can say will be helpful! Probably….**

 **Anyway! Thank you Kuroshibata70 and losthero071300 for the follows and favourites, that's totally awesome! Kuroshibata also has a few fanfics of his own, including an Avengers one. Though I haven't gotten around to reading them yet since they aren't my preferred fandoms… some of them seem kinda popular so check em out, maybe tell me what you think! Also Fanvergent394 who also followed and faved and who's Percy Jackson fic I** _ **have**_ **read, and it definitely has promise so go read that!**

 **That was longer than I thought so let's cut to the chase!**

 **CHAPTER 14: THE DEVIL JOINS THE PARTY (Biko's journal)**

So, I was in the infirmary, trying not to stare at the guy in the bed in the corner of the room. Apparently, he had gotten his left arm lopped off while going to sleep in the Hephaestus Cabin. The fact that everybody took murderous beds as a normal everyday experience was staggering. The guy stitching him up even had an 'in case of dismemberment' first-aid kit, complete with a guide on reattaching left arms. Not limbs in general, just left arms. I couldn't even begin to wrap my head around this.

Well, _clearly_ I couldn't stop focussing on One-Arm Joe, because the person who I'd come to the infirmary with was saying my name, trying to wake me up from my own thoughts.

"Sorry," I apologised to her. Apparently, she was the other new girl, the 'shamed' camper. She looked tiny, with a too wide sunhat that she was now twirling around her finger. Brown hair and wide eyes. I wasn't sure why, but she reminded me of a mouse. That was Ludmila in a nutshell, and apparently, she was the daughter of Hestia. I remember hearing that Hestia was an eternal virgin, so her having a kid was questionable at best. The two girls who had been listening in on my convo with Mom had directed me to the guy who would know the most about whatever items of power she was talking about, or even where to start. And that guy was in bedrest, reading a poorly written young adult novel.

"We came to ask for your help," Ludmila said. One of the girls from yesterday, Reika, was also there, although I'm not sure where her friend had gone since she'd said she was also coming. "Biko was given a quest, but he didn't get any prophecy or guidelines to go with it. His only hints were that I was supposed to go with him, and he needs to find three super powerful items. We heard that you would know where to find them." The guy in the bed stroked his chin as he thought. Maybe he was hoping that if he kept stroking it, he would grow a beard.

"Well, it's true that Hunters know where to find a lot of weird stuff," he said. "But 'powerful item' can mean just about anything, and that's all relative to who's talking. To me, a couple of hex bags are some pretty strong stuff, but I'm guessing to you demigods, that's child's play. Who gave you the quest?"

"It was Athena," I said. "She said that… well, she said I had to prove myself to her. Prove that I was actually her daughter." I had to admit, I didn't know _what_ to feel about the whole situation. I was kind of hoping that Mom would be friendlier. Maybe I got the whole idea of a mom wrong, and they really were horrible overbearing perfectionist nightmares, but having her tell me that I wasn't her _son_? Well, that was a little harsh. And the worst part was, I definitely _did_ feel some kind of connection to her. It was almost like I had seen her somewhere before. A vague memory from a long forgotten dream. Even her intimidating presence seemed familiar. But that was where it stopped. Unlike the other Athena kids, I didn't have _any_ resemblance to her. Not even her grey eyes. So being told I had the chance to prove myself to her… did I even want to? Did I even care?

Either way, the guy in the bed frowned, and pulled out a small, slightly beat up journal from beneath his pillow. Parts of the already worn leather looked like it had been soaked in acid.

"You know, this might actually be convenient for me too," he said, flicking through the pages. "As you can see, I can't exactly move from here, but I still have a lot of things that I need people to look into…. If you guys are going to leave Camp Half – Blood, you might be able to do that for me."

"So that means you can help us, right?" Ludmila asked. "Like, you scratch our backs, we scratch yours?" Zach was staring at the journal so intently that I was sure I could see smoke rising from him burning through its pages with his intensity.

"Well, that's the problem. I'm not actually sure I _can_ help you. This journal has got info on all sorts of stuff my Mom was hunting and following up on, but it's two months old by now. It might give you a lead, but I don't know if it's still gonna be relevant. Especially after that flashy incident in Nevada…." He exchanged a quick glance with Reika, an entire conversation passing between them, but I had no idea where to start on deciphering it. Instead, Reika's face brightened up, and it almost looked like she was going to jump out of her rollerblades.

"Oh, wait! I know who can help!" she cried out, then immediately her energy petered out, and her face looked like she had got a bug in her teeth. "Oh… I know who can help…."

"I know, he's kind of sketchy-"

"Sketchy? Zach, he stole the Megiddo Circuit."

"And then helped us get it back. I know, we can't trust the guy just on principle, but he seems solid if he's going to get something out of it too. I'm pretty sure that if we can convince him that it's worth his time, he'll listen." Reika gritted her teeth, and it looked like she was resisting the urge to strangle him. But she just sighed.

"Fine. You win. Should I go get him?"

"Yeah, that would be gre-" He'd barely finished with Reika disappeared from the room, the door almost tearing itself off its hinges like a tornado had just blown through it. Thirty seconds later, and she reappeared, having dragged a very dazed and confused camper into the room.

"I brought Zodiac," she grumbled.

"Is it normal to be abducted at light speed?!" he asked, a half finished sandwich hanging out of his teeth.

"Oh shut up," Reika chided. "You can teleport, you of all people shouldn't be surprised." Zach cleared his throat. Zodiac's attention turned to him.

"Oh, hey there compadre!" he yelled. "How's the recovery coming along? You talked to Riley at all since the event?"

"Yeah, once or twice," he said.

"Wait, really?" Zodiac and Reika looked equally surprised, but Zach either didn't notice, or didn't care.

"I haven't brought you in here for that though. I need to ask you a favour." A devilish grin spread across his face.

"Oh really now? I thought that _you_ would owe me a favour after I helped you get the Circuit back."

"The one you _stole_ ," Reika growled. He waved his hand as if he was swatting a fly.

"Water under the bridge! Anyway, tell me about this favour of yours, and I'll see if it's actually worth my time."

"These guys here need help on a quest," Zach said. "They're looking for three super powerful items in America. From the way they've described it, they might be some of the items Mom was writing about in her journal. The relics that have been recently smuggled in here. No offence but…." He looked up and down at me, as if he was scanning all of my strengths and weaknesses. "These kids are gonna die if we send them anywhere too dangerous." I wanted to be offended, but evading danger actually seemed like a pretty good idea.

"So what do you need me for?" Zodiac asked. He'd pulled out a coin from his pocket and was flipping it, catching it on the back of his other hand, checking it, and repeating the process.

"I need you to tell me what you know. You've been dealing with these guys for a while, right? So you should have the heads up on where these things have been moved around, and which ones are easier to… well, 'liberate' I guess."

"Okay then, lemme see your notes." Reluctantly, Zach let Zodiac take a peek. He skimmed through them, sometimes nodding and pointing out whatever he thought was interesting, and other times frowning and shaking his head, normally with equally optimistic messages like 'fun place if they want to be swimming with concrete shoes' or 'do they like lead in their diet by any chance?' Finally, he stopped Zach from changing the pages, pinning his fingers to two points on the page.

"I've given you your head start," he said. "Nashville Tennessee, Atlantic City in New Jersey and Cleveland Ohio. You'll find your super cool, super awesome symbols of power there."

"Cool, we just have three entire cities to search," Ludmila said. "No problem."

"Look, I've not got a problem with directing you guys towards them," Zodiac said. "After all, the Camp has actually been a pretty sweet place for me to crash. But I'm not getting anything from giving you all the cheat codes. Why should I help you guys?"

"Because I already know that you're a thief by trade," Zach said. "You rob and steal and loot rare and mystical items all the time. That's how you've been living by yourself all this time, right?"

"Hey, I don't steal _all_ the time!" He yelled back. "And I only take stuff out of the wrong hands. What's wrong with that?"

"A lot of things depending on your definition of 'wrong', but I don't really care. Somebody who lives like you do probably lives by sneaking and slinking through the shadows. What if you had the opportunity to strike it big, and I mean _real_ big? In exchange for helping these kids find whatever toys they need, I can help you steal whatever super powerful item you want, as long as it's magical."

"What, you? Ha! You must be joking. Why would I bother asking you for help on a job like that?"

"Because first off, I'm friends with a Hermes kid, and one that could steal _you_ from wherever you were."

"Wait, you're roping _me_ into this?" Reika asked incredulously. Zach ignored her and kept speaking.

"And second, because I'm a hunter. Unlike these demigods, I have connections in shady places. I can get them to cover up any job as long as it's done well. And I've done my fair share of dirty deeds so I'm not gonna let my moral compass sway me." Zodiac stayed silent, as if he was thinking on it, his eyes shifting between Zach, Reika, and us.

"Well, I can definitely tell you're a veteran when it comes to this kind of thing. And maybe I _do_ have a few things that I wanna take for myself… but let me tell you this now, you can't negotiate a deal for your life. I mean, you're trying to bribe me with something I still have to _work_ for? Are you crazy? There's no way any normal person would accept that!"

"But I'm guessing you're not a normal person?" Zodiac shrugged his shoulders.

"Well I've spent half of my life living on the streets despite being the son of a goddess. I think that automatically disqualifies me from being a 'normal' person. Don't get me wrong, I'm still gonna take you up on your offer, but I'm not gonna help these kids out because of it. I have my own agenda, my own things to do, to take care of."

"So you're gonna give the kids all the info they need for their quest?" Zodiac looked at me with a smile that made him look more like the devil than a kid.

"Even better. I'm going to escort them myself."

* * *

What little time I still had flew past me like a blur. I'm sure that I was still talking with the other members of the team, dealing and associating with them. I _had_ to have been doing something like that. But it felt more like a dream than reality. Or maybe an awkward mix between a dream and a nightmare. I wasn't even used to being far from my Old Man, and now I was going to go on a cross country tour, where the main activity was thievery. The only thing that I could remember just before leaving was our trip to the armoury.

Ludmila and I were gawking at the various weapons stacked all around the Athena cabin. Even with how nervous I was, I couldn't contain the elation at seeing so much cool stuff around me. It was freaking _Swordhaven_ full of _Black Ops II_ equipment, with magic attachments instead of scopes. It didn't really look that ordered though. It was more like somebody just found a bunch of really cool stuff and crammed them together in one place.

"Take your pick," Zodiac said, beckoning all around him, his arms spread wide around him. He was trying his best to look cool, but he couldn't fool me. He wanted to become as much of a fanboy as I felt. "This cabin has everything you need to slay anything from a gremlin to a mutated Indian elephant."

"You say that as if we're going to need to fight a lot," Ludmila grumbled.

"Trust me kid, you have _no idea_. If we're lucky, our journey is actually gonna be pretty boring. But since I'm stuck with an Athena kid _and_ a Hestia kid, which may as well be a super charged child of Demeter, things are gonna be different. Monsters will be attracted to you like rats to cheese." I wanted to tell him that most rats didn't like cheese, and it was actually _mice_ that ate the stuff a lot, but instead, I pointed out:

"But I've been fine this whole time. I've only ever been attacked by monsters a few times. What makes now so different?"

"Well, now you actually _know_ your lineage, and you _know_ what you are. Walking around out there, you're like a walking beacon to strong monsters. Everybody's gonna want a piece of you, literally."

"Like Miss Valentine," Ludmila said, a little sweat dripping down from her hairline, getting lost in her eyebrow.

"Right now, you probably smell like bacon strips to all the nasties of the world. If you walk around unarmed, you'll be toast in seconds. So that's why you've got to pick something cool to use. Your three factors are power, familiarity, and practicality. Power is an obvious one. Zach, for example, uses guns, like this guy here." He pulled a golden revolver from the gun rack, inspecting it for God knows what. "His guns are strong, real strong. Most bullets don't work on monsters, but Zach's found loopholes around that. He's pretty familiar with them too, so he can use them just fine. The problem is that unlike this little guy, it's pretty tricky to hide a shotgun."

"Plus, none of us know how to use one," I said.

"Exactly, so that's out of the question. On the other hand, you have something else, like this." He put the pistol back and took out a grey yoyo with blue pentagram patterns on the sides. "Bone steel yoyo, with thread made of woven divine silver. This hurts most monsters and can bind werewolves. Plus, you don't even need to hide it. It's a yoyo."

"But unlike the gun, it's pretty weak," Ludmila said.

"And there's the problem again of familiarity. I don't think you guys can fight with yoyos. So you should stay away from… what are you doing?" Ludmila was walking towards another item that was next to the yoyo. There were two of them, and they looked like two balls of glowing bronze rope attached to chains.

"These are poi," she said. "Monkey fist fire poi, used in performance arts."

"Yup," Zodiac said. "I've seen some like them before with demigods. That one is probably made of something weird like Kevlar infused with celestial bronze, with celestial bronze chains. It's nigh on indestructible, and probably set to burn with Greek fire. They're pretty showy." Ludmila grabbed them, examining them carefully. "Hey wait, you wanna use those as weapons? Those are probably ceremonial or something, and they're pretty impractical. It's like using the yoyos as a weapon!"

"I think I'll be fine," she replied. "Plus, I've used poi before." Zodiac just shrugged his shoulders and turned to me instead.

"Okay then noob, what's your weapon of choice then?" I saw the only zweihander in the whole armoury, a massive bronze sword a bit bigger than I was tall, and reached to grab it. Zodiac slapped my hand away before I could even touch it.

"Oh no, I'm not having you lug around a weapon like that!" he yelled. "Mist or not, I don't see you hiding this thing from _anybody_ , and using it is impossible!"

"But, it looks so _cool_!" I said. "It's like Cloud's Buster Sword but it glows in the dark!"

"And by the time you even _swing_ it, you'll be sliced to ribbons! Pick something practical!" Dismayed (no, _heartbroken!_ ), I tore my eyes away from the weapon and spotted a sparkling gold short sword next to it. It didn't look like anything fancy, apart from being solid gold of course. I picked it up. I guess I was expecting it to feel like lightning was racing up my arm and along my spine, like I'd found a lost part of myself. Like I had found the chosen sword of legend, or pulled it from a magic stone. But it felt strangely… _normal_ , if not a bit heavy.

"Well, I guess this will do," I complained. Zodiac nodded his head.

"Better choice. That's an imperial gold gladius, forged for Roman soldiers. It's a good weapon. It's easy to use, and was the go to sword for centuries." I guessed he was right, but it didn't really look… _cool_. It was just a sword, and that was it. There was nothing really special about it. Either way, I grabbed it and the scabbard it came with (remember King Arthur!), tying it around my belt and sheathing it so it hung to my side. "Don't worry about _this_ being spotted. It's small enough that the mist will automatically warp it. It will look like… I dunno, a switchblade? A Swiss army knife?"

"Good enough! So, now that we've got our weapons, we're all set, right? Rations, clothes, first aid, toothbrush…."

"Yeah, we won't over it all a thousand times," Ludmila replied. "We've barely been doing anything else but planning for this."

"Wow, you guys actually think that you can _plan_ a quest without experience," Zodiac snickered.

"So you expect us to walk out there blind?"

"The way you are now, you might as well. Not like it's gonna make a difference."

"We'll soon see about that," Ludmila said with a smirk. "And how come _you_ aren't picking out a weapon too?"

"Me? Why would I need to? It's not like I'm going to be doing a lot of fighting. That's _your_ job." As soon as he saw the irritation on Ludmila's face, he started speaking again, covering himself up. "Besides, it's not like I'm _completely_ unarmed! I already have a weapon of my own! So, can we get going now?"

"Yeah!" I yelled. "Tomorrow, we will run faster! Stretch out our arms farther! And one fine morning…."

"You'll wake up with a sword in your gut," Zodiac finished with a smirk, walking out of the shed.

"Oi, oi…."

"Oh don't worry, you have me on your side. I'll make sure you stay safe!"

"What, until the going gets tough?"

"Glad you know how I work already! Well then, it's time to head out! Our first stop: Atlantic City!"

* * *

. . .

* * *

 **Third Person POV**

Zach was starting to get edgy having to lie around all day. Every now and then, he got up and went for a walk, got some fresh air. But he wasn't allowed to participate in camp activities, and he had a crutch wherever he moved. All he had was a sprained ankle now. He'd seen demigods enter with wounds that would take weeks to heal and be out in a few hours. Knowing that by comparison he was so useless… well, it wasn't the most cheerful thought.

Instead, he spent his time either reading, or writing. Sometimes, Reika would stop by and give him something to read. Usually they were terrible paperbacks or cheesy comic books, but every now and then she gave him something interesting.

He was in the middle of reading _Looking For Alaska_ when somebody came into the sickbay. He looked up from the pages of his book and saw Riley standing at the doorway, the light from outside making her cast a shadow into the already dark room.

"What is your plan?" she asked him.

"Good morning to you too."

"I heard that the new kids went out on a quest just recently with Zodiac. I also heard that you gave them a helping hand, pointed some things out for them. You're telling me you did this out of charity?"

"What, is that so hard to believe? I can be a nice guy sometimes." She clearly wasn't buying it, but she played along anyways.

"Even _if_ you're just trying to be nice, you wouldn't have sent Zodiac of all people unless you felt like you had to get something stolen, and quickly. You can't trust the guy to work with yourself, but a bunch of strangers? They're perfect guinea pigs. If anything goes wrong, they'll just wind up as collateral."

"Geez, that's a heartless assessment of my tactics don't ya think? What if I genuinely just want to give Zodiac a chance to prove himself as 'one of the good guys'? What if I believe that the rookies might actually come back fine from their quest? What if-"

"What if they're all just pawns for your own plans? Zach, I know that you're used to operating on your own as a Hunter, but you can't keep hidden agendas and go behind our backs while you're here."

"Yeah, yeah, Campers stick together and all that…." Riley shook her head furiously.

"No, screw the camp! You can't go behind the backs of your _friends_." Zach had to admit, he was a little surprised by that one. He didn't expect to hear that coming from Riley of all people. Huh, maybe he wasn't as alone as he thought after all?

"I know that it's overwhelming," she continued, "meeting something that you can't kill. Believe me, I'm still recovering from that now. It's why I've been so trippy lately. But, doing things on a whim isn't a good way to deal with it… as you found out."

"My head still rings on some days," I admitted. Riley grimaced, but continued anyway. I figured it was best not to interrupt her again.

"We're here to check up on you if you do anything stupid. And trust me, we _all_ want to get a second shot to prove ourselves. So trust us a little so that we can help." Zach stayed silent. She probably did have a point, but the advice sounded strange coming from Riley. He nodded his head, but he wasn't sure how much he actually believe her.

"I'll give you the heads up if I find out anything. If it might affect Zodiac too, then I'll tell Chiron afterwards." Riley didn't look convinced, but she headed back towards the door. Just before she could leave, she stopped, lingering at the doorway and looking back at him through the corner of her eye.

"Oh, and Zach? Sorry about… you know…." She didn't need to say anything else. Anybody could tell what she was talking about.

"Don't worry, it's given me a lot of time to think," he said. "Don't beat yourself up over it. Just let Clarisse do that for you." For one regretful moment, he wondered whether she would turn around and punch him through his bed for the joke, but she laughed it off and left. After five, maybe ten minutes, when he was sure that he couldn't hear anybody else nearby, he pulled out a cell phone Zodiac had smuggled in from beneath his pillow. Being mortal, it would probably be safe as long as no demigods were nearby. Putting aside his book, he pulled out his journal, turning to a blank page, right after Suparna's entry. He scribbled furiously with one hand while his other hand dialled on the phone. It took three rings before somebody picked up.

"Gordon Kent speaking, may I help you?" a gruff voice called out over the phone.

"Get me B. Singer," Zach said. "Tell him it's from Kerouac. I need him to find me a gun. A special gun…."

 **Okay! I think that's all the follows done! So now on to favourites! Simply for time, I'm only mentioning people who favorited only. If someone's name was mentioned as a follow, then yeah that's it. So, shoutout to** _ **keyking24**_ **(The Kingdom Key! I expect to see Sora or Mickey to show up any minute now…),** _ **Animeangie**_ **(Her active account for writing fanfic is** _ **keymasterdan**_ **(THE KINGDOM KEY!) so if you like Fairy Tail or Katekyo Hitman Reborn, stop by! I'm reading Phoenix Wing right now, and my reviews probably sound harsh since I don't like Fairy Tail much…. BUT it is pretty good, and gets better over time, so you might wanna have a look!) and** _ **Petrichor in May**_ **who seems to have a bunch of fics I need to check out and seems to be pretty popular too (admittedly, I'll probably dodge the Naruto ones because Naruto but to each their own). So yeah, thanks for reading, sorry for the monstrous ANs, and I'll see you all next week!**


	15. IT'S A DOG-EAT-HELLHOUND WORLD

**Wow, the last three chapters I've uploaded have gotten zero reviews at all. That's weird. Normally I guess I'd shrug my shoulders and roll with it, but I'm not sure what to make of it now since Part II has been much harder to write than Part I. I'm a little worried. Well, I'll deal with it! I already knew from the start this wouldn't get that many reviews! However, I really do love hearing you guys's feedback once in a while, whether it's tips and tricks or just "that was coolz dude!" or "nah bruh, fix that", it does help a lot and keep me motivated, and I always try to improve it to make it better than it was before. So, just dropping in a word or two would be awesome! Anyway, I've said my piece!**

 **Thanks to catnip99 and BitterSweet256 for the favs and follows! (Almost) more effective than a deadline in terms of getting me to actually sit down and write this stuff! Knowing that people are WAITING/PRODDING ME WITH STICKS for me to finish each chapter! So here goes!**

 **CHAPTER 15: IT'S A DOG-EAT-HELLHOUND WORLD (Ludmila's thoughts)**

When I heard the words 'quest' I kind of expected to fly on a dragon halfway across the country on an epic journey. I wasn't expecting a multiple hour bus ride.

We'd gone a couple of miles south with the help of our all – seeing camp security guard, but the rest was up to us. I suggested that we just take a plane to Atlanta, but then our passports and tickets would be the least of our worries on this trip. Airport security would go mental with all the weapons we were carrying. A bus was our best bet, and it would keep us constantly on the move so we wouldn't have to deal with monsters for a while. Unless there were monsters _already_ on the bus. I was told by Reika that if that happened, then we would be fine as long as we tipped the whole bus over and ran the rest of the way. Maybe it was a good thing that the start of the quest wasn't so exciting.

When we finally arrived, we paid the conductor and disembarked, leaving our only safe haven behind us as the bus drove away on its path.

"Well then, now that we're here, where do we start?" I asked. "We can't exactly go to the pawn shop and ask if they have any doomsday devices."

"You'd be surprised," Zodiac said. "But you're right, this isn't one of _those_ trinkets. If we're gonna get this thing, we need to go somewhere where the song of the sea is strongest. Well, ocean in this case. And obviously, that would be the beach."

"What are we even looking for anyway?" Biko asked. "It kind of helps to at least know where to start…."

"We're looking for a Kantele," Zodiac said. "But not just _any_ kantele, but Väinämöinen's kantele."

"Väina… what? And what's a kantele?"

"Ooh, I know this one!" Biko exclaimed, almost jumping out of his socks. Then, he became as stoic as a rock, standing upright and clearing his throat. "A kantele is a type of stringed instrument, similar to a zither. It's like a big harp, but instead of being large and open, the strings are against a board, and you lay the instrument flat on a table or your lap instead of playing it upright." I stared at him for a few seconds, wondering how or why he even knew that. From how prepared he looked, this was probably going to become common.

"He's… actually right," Zodiac said, although he looked equally surprised himself. "And Väinämöinen, or _Wainamoinen_ if you want to anglicise it, was a hero from Finnish folklore, probably even a demigod, like us. It's said that he killed a pike and forged the first ever kantele using its jawbones, and probably a few other bits and bobs. This instrument had the very power of nature itself, and could sway even animals to its tune, but he dropped it in the sea. Ever since then, the sounds that you hear at the beach have just been the sea jamming tunes on his kantele. He later made a replacement out of wood, but he still hangs onto it, and being from Finland, we can't really get that one."

"So… the sounds we hear at the sea aren't being caused by the crashing waves and the birds around us… but by a magical harp lost in Finland."

"Well… yes. And no. I'm not gonna pretend to understand it, but magical and godly stuff can be both true and false, so we're _probably_ not going to erase all beach noises from existence or whatever. What I _do_ know is that this kantele is an incredibly powerful instrument, much stronger than your everyday lyre from the Apollo cabin. Its power controls the crashing waves of the ocean itself, and even its inferior copy was strong enough to control even the creatures of hell. The best part is that it isn't even that hard to get."

"If it isn't that hard, why has nobody stolen it yet?" I asked.

"That's probably because people either don't realise that it's here, or because nobody knows how to summon it. For now though, let's head to the beach."

"Yeah! Hey, why don't we head to the boardwalk?" Biko asked. "There's cool rides and stuff and weird foods and stuff, and since we'll be near the sea, we can get this mystic instrument thing too."

We headed through the streets, and I kept on glancing at Biko's sword. There was no way to hide that this thing was a blade, a tool for murder, but nobody seemed to bat an eyelash at it apart from a few little kids. I guessed that Zodiac wasn't lying when he said that mortals didn't notice these things. Maybe they saw it as a really fancy baseball bat?

Although, while nobody was nearby, I couldn't help but feel uneasy. The massive towers and skyscrapers loomed over us as we walked, and I felt like a thousand pair of eyes were trying to stare right through me. The temperature must have dipped five degrees because it felt like there were shadows crawling down my neck.

Either nobody else noticed, or nobody else cared, because by the time we reached the boardwalk, all Biko could talk about was the endless array of attractions that stretched out to the edge of the ocean.

"Man, this place is the best!" he cried out. "It's like a floating amusement park!"

"No need to get so excited, it's just a boardwalk," I replied, but I couldn't help but smile at his childish enthusiasm. His eyes were as wide as dinner plates, and he was biting his knuckles to stop himself from crying out. While I wasn't sure where he got the enthusiasm from, I at least saw where he was coming from.

Even ignoring the technicoloured street with its numerous brightly coloured shops that we were on, the boardwalk looked like somebody had melted a rainbow and splashed it onto a pier. There were brightly coloured tents and stalls of various colours, with food, drinks, and rigged mini games that would make you giggle and laugh as they discreetly stole your money. And then there were the great goliaths of the boardwalk, the massive attractions. A Ferris wheel that was trying to scrape the sky, a massive pendulum looking thing, and… a giant slingshot? It was hard to tell whether it was an amusement park ride or a complex torture device.

"So, what do we have to do?" I asked.

"Well that's easy my young compadre. We just have to summon the instrument from the depths of the ocean! Well, from the _spirit_ of the ocean I guess, but who cares about the technicalities!"

"So… we do that by…." Zodiac shrugged his shoulders.

"You mean to tell me you sent us here while you didn't even know _how_ to get it?"

"Hey, the only thing I knew was that this one wasn't guarded! Do you want to go find the Philosopher's Stone in Fort Knox?"

"Wait, there's a real Philosopher's Stone?" Biko asked.

"Well yes, but hunting that wasn't part of the bargain."

"Right… we have to follow the law of equivalent exchange huh?" I was sure that he could _feel_ our unblinking, unregistering faces. "Uh, you know… like, since it's a bargain, it's a kind of deal, and everything follows the law of equivalent exchange, and since he mentioned a philosopher's stone which breaks that law…." If there was one thing I noticed, Biko liked making a lot of quotes and references, but he was _definitely_ trying too hard with this one. Even if I _did_ get the reference, I was pretty sure I would still let him know that the joke had passed. "Hey, let's go check out that hot dog stand," he whispered, meekly raising a trembling finger at a line of sketchy looking food stands.

"Food. Good plan," Zodiac said, trying his best to ignore that painfully awkward stretch. "It's nothing spectacular, but it should help us to keep our energy up. So, who's paying? Not it!"

"Not it!"

"What?" Maybe it was unfair to leave ordering and paying for the meal to Biko who's speech seemed to have failed him, but I didn't really want to do it either. Technically we all had the same shared funds, but it just meant that it would come out of his share instead of mine. He looked like he wanted to protest but couldn't muster the courage, so he headed for the hot dogs. I looked at Zodiac with worry and he nodded his head. We followed him in case he embarrassed himself.

The guy running the stand looked like he was a few days away from retirement, with greying hair and a pipe between his teeth. There was a strange, almost star shaped scar in the middle of his forehead and he smelled like smoke. Despite his slightly mobster like appearance, he smiled at us as we arrived.

"And what would you like today my lovely customers?" he asked.

"Uh… three – three hot dogs," Biko stuttered.

"With mustard," Zodiac added.

"With mustard."

"And chilly, lots of it," I interjected.

"And lots of chilly."

"So three hot dogs with mustard and chilly, right?" The man asked.

"No, just _mine_ with mustard!" Zodiac yelled.

"Three chilly dogs, one with mustard?"

"No mustard on mine."

"And no chilly on mine!"

"Two chilly dogs, one with mustard, one hot dog with mustard."

"Wait, no chilly for Biko! Does Biko want chilly?"

"Or even mustard?"

"Uhh… guys…." Biko looked like he was about to be sick. As soon as I noticed, I stopped talking. At first I thought that maybe he didn't like the air around the sea, but he was rubbing his temples like he was finding it _really_ hard to concentrate, a pained expression on his face. Pretty much every camper was ADHD, and everyone on the autism spectrum displayed it differently. I guess for Biko, he couldn't focus at _all_ if too much stuff was happening.

"Just… put whatever," He muttered. His vision looked pretty out of focus, and he was staring at one spot in front of him. I figured I would just take his hot dog until he calmed down a bit and could take it himself. Then, as if it was loaded on a spring, his head snapped to his left. He blinked a few times, rubbing his eyes and checking for _something_ , though I had no idea what. For a second I was starting to think that he had lost it.

"Biko? What's wrong?" I asked. "Helloo?" I waved my hand in front of his face, but there was no response. Zodiac grabbed his hot dog from the stall owner and waved it under his nose. Eventually, he snapped back to the world of the living.

"Sorry, you say something?"

"We were trying to hand you your hot dog but you spaced out. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I just thought that I saw something, that's all," he said as he took his hot dog. It was drowning in ketchup and mustard, and a third mystery sauce I didn't want to identify.

"What? What did you see?" Zodiac asked. His voice sounded urgent, nothing like the lax guy who had been with us the whole time.

"Umm… I dunno, it looked like some kinda weird dog or something."

"What breed was it? Colour and size?"

"I-I dunno, I don't know their breeds, and I didn't see it properly, it must have slipped away or something…."

"Colour, size." He repeated. He was looking around nervously, and he was digging his hands into his hoodie's pockets.

"Black, really big, like it could eat Ludmila or something."

"Hey!" I called out. Zodiac didn't care, pulling out a slingshot and a silver ball the size of my thumb. The hot dog seller looked at us in concern.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Nah, everything's fine," Zodiac lied. I could tell that everything was _not_ fine, but I didn't know what or why. He turned to us and whispered: "everything is _not_ fine."

"I think we realise that already," I said, already fidgeting on the spot. I didn't like the way things were going.

"Guys, I think we're being followed," Zodiac said.

"By who?"

"Not who, _what_." Before we could say anything else, Zodiac's eyes widened in shock. He dived at us, tackling us straight to the ground. Just before we hit the ground, everything around me disappeared, replaced by a psychedelic sea of colours and lights. It felt like going bungee jumping through a tornado. Then, it all stopped, and we collapsed on the wood. I got up, my head still spinning from the trip.

"What was _that_?" I asked.

"Teleportation," Zodiac said. "And for good reason too. Check that out." We turned around to look where he was pointing. Right on top of where we were standing (twenty feet away? Whoa…) was a massive dog the size of a bear. Actually, maybe it _was_ a bear, but it had glowing red eyes and the head of a mastiff, and was slobbering all over the shattered bits of wood beneath its claws. The old man had jumped backwards, shocked into momentary silence. I was amazed that it could sneak up on us so efficiently. I was also equally amazed that nobody else was running and screaming in panic. They were just kind of curious, milling around it and pointing.

"What the hell is that?!" Biko asked as it looked up at us. Its growl sounded more like a very loud chainsaw than a dog.

"Your choice of words couldn't be more perfect," Zodiac said, although he was looking around instead of at the dog before us. "That is a hellhound. They never lose their target and they can also teleport to anywhere that has a shadow."

"Teleporting hellhounds… great." The hellhound leaped at us, obliterating the hot dog stand as it travelled through it. We scrambled, just barely avoiding getting impaled. I stumbled and fell to the ground, rolling to get up quick. I was standing in the shadow of the Ferris wheel, wondering if anybody high up on it could see what was happening. I could feel warm breath on my neck and hear the deep rumble of a hellhound. Panicking, I dived out of the shadow again. Something heavy slammed into my side, sending me sprawling to the ground.

Pain flared up in my ribs. It was like somebody had poured gasoline over me and set it on fire. The wind had been knocked right out of me, and trying to stand up was like lifting twenty elephants. Looking around, I could see the shadows shifting, like they were trying to force themselves to come to life. Where there were only two hellhounds, there were now thirteen, and all of them wanted our throats.

The hellhound that had tackled me to the ground was diving at me, but before it could gouge out my face, it disintegrated into dust, just as quickly as it appeared. Zodiac was standing behind it, his slingshot held in front of him, its strap still jiggling from use. He ran towards me and picked me up off the ground.

"Stay focused, kid," he said. I nodded my head and stood a little bit behind him. I didn't even try bringing out my own weapon because I was too freaked out to even think about it.

Zodiac reloaded his slingshot and fired another slug into the skull of a hellhound, the whole thing toppling over to the ground. Just beneath it was Biko, who was being pinned down until just a moment ago. Another shot fired later and the hellhound disintegrated into nothing.

"Biko, don't forget that you've got a weapon!" Zodiac roared. "Fight or you'll die!"

"R-right!" he stammered, getting up and drawing his sword with the satisfying sound of metal against leather. He held his sword in front of him, his stance wide and knees flexed. He looked like he was trying to hold a katana, not a short sword. Did he learn that stance from an anime?

Anyway, he changed it up pretty quick, swinging it like a baseball bat, knocking a hellhound flat. He finished it with one wild swing down at its neck, guillotining it before it turned to dust. Two more exploded into sand as Zodiac shot them, but they were just replaced by four more. I stopped focussing on Biko when I noticed a shadow shimmering to Zodiac and I's right.

"Over there, two o' clock!" I yelled. Zodiac aimed and fired, vaporising it before it could materialise. Another two bounded towards us from the left. "Two of them, nine o' clock!" He fired two at once, the dogs exploding with agonised howls. Five more were in front, and I could hear more growling to our right again. I swear I could see one on the Ferris wheel trying to dive down on us. "There's too many of them!" I screamed.

"Yeah, I know," Zodiac replied, shooting the one on the Ferris wheel off and into the ocean. "We've got to find some way to thin their numbers or escape." Option number two was looking more enticing by the second as two hellhounds kind of oozed their way up through the floor. We turned around and legged it, shamelessly even, weaving between confused pedestrians and pushing them aside. Some of them were now starting to freak out and back away as the hellhounds approached. I was wondering what the mist was making mortals see now as we were hunted through the boardwalk. An army of demon poodles perhaps?

We sprinted halfway across the boardwalk, only occasionally slowing down to decapitate a hellhound or for Zodiac to shoot one or two between the eyes. That is, until we made it to the end of the boardwalk.

"Dead end," Biko said. I wanted to add _literally_ to that seeing as we were being chased by the spawn of hell, but I didn't want to somehow jinx it so our chances of survival were _worse_.

Again, I felt a cold chill running up and down my spine. That must have been the chill of death or something else poetic like that. I turned around, looking at the army of hellhounds before us.

"I don't wanna die," Biko whimpered. The fact that he didn't pick a set of _famous_ last words to quote was probably a sign that things were a bit too grim for clear thought.

"Well that's not a problem," a familiar voice said. The old man from before walked forward, dusting off the little cap he had been wearing. His clothes looked a little scratched up, but apart from that, he was fine. "All you have to do is simply _not_ die."

I wanted to say some quip back, but my courage was failing me. I could feel my fear bubbling as the army slowly prowled towards us. _Calm down, Ludmila_ , I told myself. _You have to stay focussed, look for an escape route, any clues for… wait, that man…._

"Hang on, you can see them?" I asked. I hadn't noticed at the time, but back when they first appeared, he was the only person who actually looked scared of the hellhounds, even now as everybody stared at us.

"Of course. After all, hellhounds are pretty common down in the underworld." His eyes turned as black as a wormhole, and there was a small ring of fire around his feet. "We were simply searching the area, you know, doing our job. I was actually on my break. I didn't even realise that you guys were demigods until the Hell Hounds picked up your scent. Ruined my break too since I have to destroy you now…."

"I'm guessing that guy's a monster too?" Biko asked, his sword slipping a little as he fumbled to hold it still.

"Yeah, though I have no clue what," Zodiac replied. "I just know that he's definitely not friendly if the Hell Hounds aren't attacking him. Biko, you take him on. We'll deal with the Hell Hounds." Biko nodded and charged at the old man.

"Get lost!" the man roared, catching his blade and slapping him, sending me flying across the boardwalk.

"Biko!" I cried.

"Ludmila, focus!" Zodiac yelled. It hurt, but I tore my eyes away from him. He would have to deal with that guy himself. We had a much bigger problem. Or rather, _problems_.

A hundred different hellhounds were all leaping and diving for our throats, and the closer they got to us, the harder it was for Zodiac to concentrate on fighting them.

"Grab my shoulder," he said. I nodded my head and placed my hand on it. The world spun out of focus again, colours seeming bright and alien before returning to normal. We'd only moved twelve feet away, but where we were standing at first was now a whole dogpile of enemies. That's when I suddenly remembered that I had weapons too.

I gulped and stretched my hands behind my back, unzipping my backpack and pulling out two Ziploc bags, my fire poi still inside them. I tore them open, the guilt of leaving plastic lying around leaving my mind as I stretched my poi out. They dangled to the ground, suspended in the air by the chains leading up to my hands. I swung them a few times experimentally.

Poi aren't meant to be used as weapons, but I'd been bruised enough times as them to know that they could pack a punch if they were made of the right stuff, and it didn't come much tougher than Celestial Bronze. I swung them around me in a whirlwind, a protective field of Kevlar and bronze protecting me in a beautiful X shape. The first hellhound dived at me, and I smacked it hard in the face, the hellhound spiralling through the air before Zodiac finished it. While I tried building up momentum for the right poi again, I slammed the left one into a second hellhound, finishing it with both Poi at once, crushing it with ease.

Two more hellhounds exploded just before they could chomp me in half. As long as Zodiac was covering my back, I would be fine.

And then I heard screaming. Not my own, of course.

I turned around and saw Zodiac wrestling with a hellhound, the creature's jaws just inches away from his face.

"No!" I cried, sprinting towards him. My whole body felt like magma was flowing through it, and I could hear my own heartbeat in my ears, magnified a thousand times. Everything seemed lighter, like I was seeing through a haze, and my outstretched arm was glowing white. As soon as I was in range, I swung my poi at it, but something else happened instead. As soon as it came into contact with it, it burst into flames, the whole hellhound lighting up like a firework as it toppled over onto the boardwalk, howling in pain before it burnt to ashes. Zodiac got up, a little dizzy but only mildly singed.

"Are you alright?" I asked.

"Yeah I'm fine – Holy Hera! What's happening to you?" I looked at my hands. Actually, my whole body was glowing, and it felt like any second now I was going to burn up. But it didn't exactly feel painful. It felt… _warm_.

I turned to face the hellhounds, my fists clenched tight. Both of my poi had now caught fire, balls of red flame on the end of them. With this power… I could take on anything!

A hellhound dived for me. Laughable effort. I sidestepped with ease, kicking it in the stomach and sending it careening across the boardwalk in a skidding ball of flame. I turned around and swung both of my poi sideways. It didn't even feel like it hit, cleaving through them like they weren't even there. I swung them around me in gorgeous arcs, shredding everything to beautiful, burning pieces. Everything within two metres of me got turned to ash.

How many did I even destroy? I lost count somewhere around twenty two. And just before I struggled with two! But even with all that power, there were too many of them, two more appearing for every one that I killed. Before long, we were surrounded. At least it couldn't get any worse though, right?

An explosion went off to my left. A brilliant, golden explosion with bits of golden metal flying everywhere. Standing right in the middle of it was Biko, his sword embedded in the middle of the old man's gut. Biko's sword arm was bleeding and he was breathing heavily, but the old man also had cuts and lashes all over his body. What scared me though, was when Biko withdrew his sword. He was just holding a hilt with a jagged part of the blade. The rest of it was nowhere to be seen. He collapsed to his knees, the old man towering over him with something that looked like amusement.

"Wow, kid, for a second you surprised me there," he said. "But you were still a disappointment." He raised his hand, a massive red and orange fireball building between his fingers. I felt the air go ice cold again. Just then I realised that something was wrong. If that old guy had _fire_ powers, and hellhounds came from _hell_ , then why did the air keep turning frigid?

My answer? Half of the hellhounds in front of me just suddenly vaporising. Standing just in front of me was a guy holding a big black sword, held out to his side like he had just swung it. The sword alone looked like it was made of a collapsed star. The guy looked, and felt like death's angry kid brother.

He looked eighteen, and his skin was ghostly white, with long shaggy black hair that almost covered his eyes. There was a kind of mad glint in them, like he hadn't just been to hell, but like hell was his backyard. He wore black trousers and an aviation jacket on top of a black Bon Jovi t-shirt.

"Wow, things are nastier than I thought," the guy said.

"Who the hell are-" The old man stopped midsentence, his eyes widening in recognition. He pointed a broken and bloodied finger at him. "You… you're The Ghost King!"

"I've been called that before," he conceded, then proceeded to decimate everyone. His blade moved like it was lightning. No movement was wasted, no slash was dodged or blocked. Five more hellhounds were dropped before they even realised what was happening. One of them tried to get away. The Ghost King pulled out a bunch sharp stones, maybe fangs, and tossed them into the ground. Somehow, some way, entire skeletons dug their way out of the planks, splintering wood as they rose, already dressed in full gear. He had a miniature platoon on his side, all decimating the armies of hellhounds, especially the ones that tried to run.

"Stop that!" the old man roared, but before he could do anything else, Biko decked him right in the face, his fist colliding with bone with a satisfying crunch. The old man staggered backwards, clutching his bloodied nose in pain. The Ghost King finished it up, chucking his sword at the guy. It embedded itself in his chest, the man choking out globs of blood as he stared at the weapon in surprise. He snarled and glared at the new arrival.

"This isn't over!" he spat. "If it weren't for you arriving here…."

"Whatever, just get out of my sight," the teenager shot back, pointing at the old man. The man convulsed, howling into the sky, black smoke streaming out of his nostrils and mouth. He inhaled them all back and roared, an inferno engulfing him. When it died down, he was gone, just leaving behind the sword that returned to the newcomer's hand like it was made for it. I was still awestruck when Zodiac yelped in alarm. I focussed again, spinning my poi with even more force than before.

I hacked, whacked, and smashed my way through them all until I wasn't even sure if I was still hitting anything anymore, but I didn't care, I'd gotten into my groove. I twirled, spun and flipped, dancing across the boardwalk. Finally, I intertwined the poi together, letting them spin around each other as one massive ball of fire instead of two smaller ones. When I pulled them apart again, the flames had gone out, leaving them safe to land in my hands.

I blinked in confusion. There really was nothing remaining. All of the hellhounds had been annihilated. And even more surprising, it looked like I'd attracted a crowd.

The end of the boardwalk erupted into cheers and applause, Zodiac and Biko included. It felt dizzying at first, like I had just been pulled out of a dream. Nervously at first, I started smiling, bowing to my audience. Biko rushed towards us, sheathing what tiny bit of his sword remained into its scabbard.

"Whoa, Ludmila, that was so cool!" he yelled. "Could you always do that?!"

"I dunno, I guess so," I said, an embarrassed smile on my face. "I was just so scared, but then they started attacking Zodiac and I freaked out, and I just…."

"Just took out half an army of hellhounds," Zodiac said. "I'm genuinely impressed. For a second there I was thinking of abandoning you guys actually…."

"What?!" Biko and I both screamed.

"It was a joke. A joke!" We were interrupted by the rumbling water behind us from the ocean. A giant shoot of water burst up like an enormous geyser, spouting gallons of water thousands of feet into the air.

 _You who have performed with a grace worthy of the sea,_ a voice said. It was as loud as thunder, clear as crystal, and I couldn't tell if it came from the water or inside our own heads. We stared at the water, completely dumbstruck by what was happening. _You have slain the spawns of the underworld and changed the hearts of those who follow you. You have attracted a crowd with nothing but your grace and skill. You are indeed one worthy of carrying on the legacy of my master. Make use of my power and go forth! Let your song and dance change the world!_

The geyser opened up like a curtain, a kantele revealing itself as it floated down towards us. It looked a little bit like a harp that had been turned so it was flat and given a flat ivory board to rest upon. There were a few tuning pegs near the base of the kantele.

It gently floated towards me, and I raised my hands, palms upturned. As soon as it landed in my hands it warped into a pure white acoustic guitar with a black neck and fret board. I looked at the beautiful instrument in amazement, then up at the geyser. The geyser receded back to the ocean, disappearing from sight.

"Umm… so is this it?" I asked.

"Well it came from the sea," Zodiac said. "It's made of bones and stuff too… I guess your performance fulfilled the requirements for getting it?"

"You can test it out later," the newcomer said. Suddenly, I remembered that we weren't alone.

"Thanks for saving us back there," I said. "There's no way we could have made it without your help… but who are you, and why did you save us?"

"I'll answer your question when our lives aren't in danger." Just as he said that, he swung his black sword out to his side, disintegrating another Hell Hound before we could even notice. A whole wave of them had come back for round two. He turned around and slashed at them, his blade moving like lightning, every movement signalling the end of another monster. By the time he sheathed his sword again, he was surrounded by a mound of monster dust. "Once Hell Hounds catch your scent, you can't escape. Not through normal means at least."

"So how the heck do we get outta here?" Biko asked. From the state of his arm, it didn't look like he could keep fighting. The stranger looked around, then smiled as his eyes locked onto a big gift store.

"Just follow me. I know a shortcut." I was pretty sure that he was going to sprint to get there with imminent death approaching us, but he just walked casually over to it. I wanted to sprint ahead, or even jog, but I didn't actually know where he was going, so I held in my anxiety and walked, impatiently, after him.

As soon as we all stepped into the buildings shadow… well, maybe you don't really get what I mean, but we literally stepped _into_ the shadow, or _through_ it rather, like it was a puddle. Well, as soon as we stepped in the shadow, we started falling through it, leaving the boardwalk behind us as we fell through infinite darkness. There was no wind, no substance, not even sound (or else I would be able to hear myself screaming). I could just faintly make out someone's silhouette, but I couldn't even tell who's. Then, we were standing on solid ground again.

I didn't go _splat_ from falling from who knows what height. In fact, it was almost like the whole ordeal hadn't happened. Except that we were somewhere totally different. It was still a city, but this definitely wasn't Atlantic City. We were on top of a building, looking down at a Town Square, and everybody had gathered around to watch something. When I looked down at them, I saw that somebody had set up a small stage coloured with the American Flag, a big cross above it against the red backdrop. There was somebody preaching, or talking, or doing _something_ on the stage with a microphone, and whatever he was saying seemed to capture the attention of the people.

"Um, where are we?" I asked. The Ghost King looked around, then after thinking for two seconds, he nodded his head.

"Looks like we're in Ohio, halfway across the country," he replied.

"But… who _are_ you?"

"Oh yeah, we've never been introduced huh? Well then, hi. My name, is Nico di Angelo."

 **IMPORTANT A.N:** **I am _really_ struggling with this right now. Maybe you can't tell since I haven't had any gaps in updates or anything because I prepare chapters in advance in case this happens, but I'm tearing my hair out every time I sit down to write this. Now, it hasn't hit the point where it's not fun yet, but it's getting there, and I'm scared that it's going to start affecting the quality, or maybe it already has. I actually had to rewrite this ENTIRE chapter again on the same day I uploaded it, even though I already wrote it weeks in advance, and then edit it afterwards as well because it was just absolutely abysmal at first. If everything is still good, then I apologise in advance, but if it's noticeably gotten worse, I am _so_ sorry, it's just difficult and I'm stressing about other things and it's just tricky. But, like usual when I'm struggling with writing something and stressed out, I have been writing for some other stuff on the side too. I normally can't write two things at once so don't worry, my focus is still here, but when I've got enough chapters ready in advance, I'm going to start publishing a _good_ _Powerpuff Girls_ fanfic!**

 **Yeah, I know, TOTALLY WEIRD since everything else I've written has either involved giant robots, ghosts, or dragons, to suddenly write a Powerpuff Girls fic, but I can promise you that if you like this, then you will _probably_ like that as well. Princess will be the main character and it will be full of adventure and comedy and action and witty dialogue and heart break and character building and all the stuff I try to pump this story with, and that's why I think that it will be good. I don't want to make any promises or estimates for when it will be ready, _especially_ since I'm still working on this fic, but if you do want to know more about it, you can PM me or even ask in a review if you want. I'm always happy to talk.**

 **Anyway, that's all for now. It looks like that's actually all of the favourites too! Anybody else who had favourited who I've not mentioned, like _WiseGirlGeek_ for example, already followed and were already mentioned so yeah, that's that! Now I can use this space for something _normal_ again! So, stay tuned (err... bookmarked?) for next Friday!**


	16. THE GHOST AND THE DEVIL IN: STARBUCKS?

**Hello again! And welcome back for another chapter! OMG Thank you _so_ much for the reviews guys! You have no idea how relieved I am right now actually! I was kinda having a mini meltdown like "it's okay, just keep writing, it's fine as it is- _it's not fine, I'm messing up!_ " but it looks like you're still enjoying it! I guess I'm just freaking out and finding it hard because this fic just stretches my ability a little, even from the start, so I'm not used to consistently writing like this. And I'm practically at the _dreaded midpoint_ , a dark and scary sea where stories go to _die!_ This is still to fun to let that happen though, so fear not! Anyway, let me not waste more time!**

 **CHAPTER 16: THE GHOST AND THE DEVIL IN: STARBUCKS? (Biko's journal)**

"Nico di Angelo?" I asked. "You're… you're a demigod aren't you?"

"Of course he is!" Zodiac yelled. "Guys, we're in _Ohio_! We've crossed hundreds of miles in the blink of an eye! What the heck was that?!"

"Can't you also teleport?" Ludmila asked. "Why are you getting so worked up?"

"It's not the same thing! I can only teleport short distances, and I have to _see_ where I'm going to teleport there. But this guy… he moved us _all_ across the whole country. No matter how hard I tried, I could never do something like that!" Nico didn't seem to care about Zodiac's panic. Instead, he was sizing up the crowd ahead of us. If we had landed just fifty metres to our right, we would have popped up right in the middle of a crowd of hundreds. That would have thrown a spin on the event. Actually….

"What's happening here anyway?" I asked.

"Can't you tell? It's one of those big evangelical rallies. You know, where 'millions' come to hear the word of God."

"Or the word of whoever they're chucking their money at," Zodiac smirked. I looked at the congested streets and the stage where the man was preaching, or whatever passed for preaching in this case.

He looked more like a movie star than a preacher, with blonde, windswept hair, and dazzling blue eyes. He was too far away for me to make him out properly, but I could see he was wearing a red blazer and cream coloured slacks. There was something gold and dazzlingly bright around his neck, some kind of necklace or jewellery.

"People look at me and tell me that there's no more hope in this world," he said, his voice magnified across the square by massive red white and blue speakers. "Why, just the other day, a close friend of mine came to me and said 'Jordan, Jordan my man, how can you tell me to believe in a God that would allow this country to become such a chaotic place? How can you tell me to put my faith in a figure that has created all of this _evil_ as well as the good? How can you tell me that prayer and faith, and The Word is all we need in these chaotic times, where what we once held as sacred has been flipped on its head? How can we believe that God allowed America to be filled with such moral bankruptcy?!'"

As a small, almost silent wave of cheers spread, I could tell he was about to reach his bottom line. He knew it, the crowd knew it, and he knew that the crowd knew it. He paused at this moment, his eyes roving through the crowd as he gripped the sides of the podium that held his microphone, leaning forward as if he was about to whisper a great secret to them. Even from where I stood, I could tell he was looking in the eyes of each and every single person. Or at least, he made it look like that was what he was doing.

"Well, we can't stay here," Nico said, glaring at the guy. "Come on, let's find our way down." After everybody had made it to the nearest door, they must have realised I wasn't going with them.

"Biko, come on," Ludmila said, "before somebody spots us."

"I'll join you in a sec," I said. "I just wanna finish hearing what this guy has to say."

"With how loud he is," Zodiac said, "we can probably hear him across town." They didn't wait for me though, instead heading for the door and disappearing behind it as they walked downstairs. I turned my focus back to the speaker just as he started talking again.

"So I turned to my friend, and I told him, 'don't you understand? It's exactly during times like these that God shines the most! It's when we walk through the valley of the shadow of death that God reveals his true nature to us! His kind, forgiving, and ever merciful nature. Because our God is not a god of despair and defeat, but one of opportunities! In this land of opportunities, carved through oppression to create freedom, The Lord has given us the greatest opportunity ever known to mankind to spread the word of God across the world!"

He was practically roaring the words at us know. It was like somebody had replaced his vocal chords with a speaker. Even from where I was stood, I could feel the energy radiating off of him, reflecting off of the crowd, bouncing around and exciting everybody. His face was hard to make out, but I could see a big smile spreading from cheek to cheek. A warm, genuine smile. His eyes were a little watery, and he couldn't keep the glee out his face. It was like he was talking about his favourite band of all time, and the crowd was his best friend. Honestly, I couldn't help but smile a little as he went on. He had a touch of the theatrical to him, but he just looked so happy he couldn't contain himself. It was infectious.

"God isn't piling chaos and disorder on top of us, but when we act on our own, without the guidance and good grace of The Lord, then the confusion and panic of the world will overcome us! It's because we're alone, and conceited, and prideful, that we let the world's evils affect us! But walking together, hand in hand with our Father, we can triumph over evil!"

A thousand voices roared back in response, cheering jubilantly. I had to force myself not to join them. Honestly, the guy's enthusiasm was downright infectious, but I didn't actually know anything about him or what he was talking about. It's better not to follow people until you're sure that they're going to add to your character, not break it down.

"Biko!" Zodiac yelled, his voice muffled through the door.

"Y-yeah, I'm coming!" I yelled, heading for the door. The guy's speech could wait, but my teammates couldn't. I tore myself away from his near hypnotic voice and headed towards everybody else.

. . .

"Alright, so what's the deal this time?" Ludmila asked. We were sitting at a small, picturesque café with pink flamingo walls and cute little red and white seats. At one of the walls was a big corkboard with a seemingly random assortment of photographs and sketches. No two photos had the same people in them.

We were sat in the corner by a window seat, where we had a good view of outside. Ludmila was still holding onto the guitar that we'd gotten at Atlantic City. Now that we could observe it without the fear of a hellhound attack, I could tell that it was a beautiful instrument.

What I thought was just polished white wood was actually ivory, although I had no idea what kind of animal would have had tusks or bones like those. The strings were bronze and seemed to hum slightly when she just held her fingers over them. Embedded in the head of the guitar, where the tuning picks were, was a design of a fish. Or rather, just it's skeleton.

She was cradling it on her knee, and it looked like she wanted to play it so badly but was afraid to touch it. With the picture perfect backdrop of the open door on one end that led to the fountain, and the busy city streets out the window to the other, I couldn't help but think she was some kind of beatnik performer, travelling the country with nothing but the power of music and her own courage.

Nico had probably travelled by way of fist fights and pistol smoke.

I swear the light just seemed to get absorbed into him. Everything that got near him got darker and colder, like the life was drained from it. I always thought that it was cool how someone's presence alone could hurt someone in a lot of shounen anime, but now that I was near Nico, I knew how people from those worlds felt. It was like every second I spent near him, the hands of death would wrap its hands tighter around my neck. I didn't even _want_ to think about what kind of Nen ability he would have had.

Zodiac was either really resilient, or just didn't notice, because he was doodling something on his napkin whilst he sipped on a milkshake.

"Well, since we're here already, that saves us travelling expenses," Zodiac said, "so we can get straight to our next operation. But before that, who exactly are you?" He was pointing at Nico. Nico hadn't ordered anything, but was instead munching on a snickers bar.

"I'm just a random guy who just happened to notice you were struggling," he said.

"There's no way you're just some 'random guy'. If there's anything I've learned, it's that you never meet a demigod just by 'chance'. Even if you think you have, you really haven't. You must have either been tailing us, or you're also looking for something. And since you're still here instead of teleporting back to Atlantic City, you must be after the same thing we're after. Who sent you?"

"Nobody sends me anywhere. I go where I want, and sometimes where I'm needed. And I bet you're going to need my help for what you're planning." Zodiac glared at him, but Nico didn't flinch.

"I hate to break whatever _this_ is up," Ludmila interrupted, "but what exactly _are_ you planning? What's our mission?" Zodiac sighed and slurped up half his milkshake in one gulp. He immediately clutched his head, his face contorting and twisting like it was getting mixed with a blender.

"Gah! Brain… brain freeze," he gasped, clutching the side of the table. Nico rolled his eyes, but Ludmila giggled. At least it had defused the tension that was building up in the room. "Sorry about that… well! The plan! It's pretty simple actually! While last time we were stealing Väin's guitar, this time it's something a little more high impact. Have any of you heard about the _Lancea Longini_? Or perhaps _The Holy Spear_?"

The names definitely rang a bell in my head, but I couldn't quite put my finger on them. If I could be given a bit more time, just a little bit more to think on it, then maybe, just maybe, I could have figured it out….

"You guys will know it better as the _Lance of Longinus_ ," Nico said. I stood straight up so fast I could feel the whiplash in my neck and circuits snapping and connecting in my brain.

"The Lance of Longinus!" I yelled. "Of course I know of it! It's a mythical weapon of unimaginable power! Um…." I realised that half the café was staring at me now and slowly sat down, shrinking within my seat. "It's a super powerful lance," I resumed, now at a quarter of the volume. "I remember it from _Neon Genesis: Evangelion_. It was… umm…." The rest of the memory was failing me. I _knew_ what it was, but I couldn't quite remember. Nico didn't feel like waiting though.

"The Lance of Longinus was a spear that existed during the first century. It's said that was the spear that stabbed Jesus of Nazareth." Our corner grew more quiet than usual. I was sure that everybody's hearts had stopped beating, except maybe Zodiac. I was also sure that Nico didn't even _have_ a heart. Maybe just an engine? "After he was crucified, a Roman Centurion decided to check he was dead, just to make sure, and stabbed him in the stomach with his lance. It's basically been bathed in divine blood, and has continued to shed more blood over the centuries. It's even rumoured that Adolf Hitler tried to get his hands on it, but there's no proof supporting the claim. I'm guessing that-"

"Whoa, whoa, _whoa_! Time out!" I yelled, my hands shaped in a big T shape. "This is _way_ too heavy! You're telling me that we have to find _that_? This isn't what I signed up for! We're the kids of Greek gods, we're meant to deal with _Greek_ problems!"

"That guitar Ludmila's got is from a Finnish hero," Zodiac said.

"Yeah, a folk hero! That's not too bad, but we're delving into Judeo—Christian stuff now! That is _not_ okay no matter how you look at it! I don't wanna mess with anybody's religion or anything…."

"So you're gonna draw the line once it comes to modern religion?" Nico asked. "You do realise all of the 'myth' that we're involved in was somebody's religion somewhere long ago, right? And that to a lot of people, Christianity is a myth too, just like the Greeks, right? Which pantheon the lance is from doesn't matter, just what it can be used for, and trust me, you do _not_ want the other side getting the lance instead."

I still wasn't even sure who the other side _was_ , but even though I knew he had a point, I couldn't help but feel a little uneasy about where this was going. It was one thing to be a demigod, but stealing holy relics? That wasn't exactly on my bucket list.

"Relax," Zodiac said. "When you see the schmuck whose hands we're lightening, you won't feel so bad. Besides, technically the Lance of Longinus is a _Roman_ relic, not a Christian one. Christian's have a tendency of stealing stuff from other myths and religions and claiming it's theirs… a lot…. Just think of the Winter Solstice!"

"And All Hallows' Eve," Nico added.

"A lot of Saints are kind of 'converted' to serve their cause too."

"Yup. Santeria used that tactic against them actually. I'm also guessing that-"

" _Anyway_ ," I interrupted, "The job! What are we meant to do?" My heart was racing, and I was drumming my fingers agitatedly against the table top. I didn't really wanna talk about this. Not here, and not now. I could tell Ludmila was staring at me, though I didn't want to check to see if it was in concern or because I was creeping her out. Instead, I focussed on Zodiac, who either didn't notice, or didn't care.

"Yes! The operation! The Lance of Longinus has moved around from place to place, but recently thanks to my totally legit and totally not shady sources, I've found out that the Lance is actually in this country, and better yet, it's in this very city as we speak."

"So, we have to break into wherever it's stored, and steal it, right?" I asked.

"That's far too easy my compadre! It's not 'stored' anywhere. It's not in some high tech museum or stuffy warehouse or even in somebody's private collection. No, it's not _in_ anything, but it is _on_ somebody. Some flashy guy within this city is wearing it, like an accessory."

"What? It's a lance, how is that possible?"

"Because _magic!_ " Nico cleared his throat, taking over from Zodiac's nonsensical explanation.

"A lot of weapons and items are magically enchanted to hide their true nature. They'll normally look like ordinary objects or accessories at first glance, like a pen, a hairclip, or maybe a coin. The Lance does the same thing by disguising itself as a necklace. A normal person wouldn't even be able to notice it."

"But we're demigods," Zodiac said, "so as long as we know what we're looking for, we can spot it with no problem. So, the guy we're looking for is a man called Jordan Flair. He's an entrepreneur, philanthropist, and currently a big name evangelical speaker. Or rather, a televangelist. Before I wound up at camp, I heard that he would be coming to town round about now for a seminar about 'the path to salvation' or something generic like that, and looking at the state of this place, he must have gotten a little enthusiastic."

"Jordan Flair? Is he the guy who's in the town square now?" I asked.

"Yup. Actually, I'm surprised we didn't see any fireworks or hear a choir singing The Star—Spangled Banner. There's not many other people who've got such a flamboyant taste for the theatrical here. Anyway, he currently owns the Lance, and he wears it all the time like it's some kinda magic trinket. He'll be spending the night at a nearby hotel, but he'll probably be leaving pretty soon after that, so tonight is our best shot at getting it. The security around the entrance and leading up to his room is pretty tight, and we won't have many shots to get it, unless you wanna snatch it off his neck."

"There has to be a moment when he's not wearing it," Ludmila said. "Like, maybe when he's sleeping or bathing or something…." Zodiac clicked his fingers and pointed at her, his eyes practically sparkling.

"Yes! Exactly what you said! He's gonna be wearing it twenty four seven, _except_ when he's taking a bath. If he knows what the Lance is, then I highly doubt he's going to want to soil it with his royal nakedness and dove soap."

"Why not when he's sleeping?" Nico asked. "That would be easiest wouldn't it?" Zodiac shook his head.

"That's when the night shift is on watch instead, and despite what you think, these guys aren't the kind of people you wanna mess with. Plus, for all we know, he might just sleep with it on to ward off the monsters beneath his bed and other ghouls and beasties. No, but my informant tells me that he always takes a shower at ten pm, just before he goes to bed, and that's also when a lot of the security is swapping out. His personal security is weakest during that time, and the hotel security is a joke so that's not a problem."

"But hotel security has guns, and the cops on speed dial," Ludmila mused. "You know, stuff and people that can _kill_ us…." I frowned, trying to connect the dots in my head before Zodiac could finish explaining them.

"Then we can just fast travel in," I said. "Err, I mean, teleport. Nico can travel anywhere he wants with his power, he can just pull us in." Nico shook his head.

"First, I _shadow travel_ , not teleport. Second, this isn't my mission. I helped you get here because watching you guys getting killed was embarrassing. Apart from that though, I wanna see you deal with this yourselves."

"Fine, but Zodiac can still instant transmit, and even take us with him."

"Yeah, as long as I can memorise the place's layout, I can travel anywhere a few dozen metres at a time, even if I can't see it."

"Normal guards can't stop teleportation, and if we time our entry with the guards switching, nobody will even notice us entering and leaving. No need to worry about getting in the building. Since it's a hotel, we can walk right in. It's our movements from there that we have to be careful about." Zodiac nodded his head. It looked like the plan was taking shape inside his head, like he was seeing it all being played out inside his mind.

"So we stroll right into the building and teleport to Jordan Flair's room. You two keep watch while I find the Lance. Once I've got it, we teleport out of there and carry on like nothing happened! Shouldn't be too hard! Any questions?"

"Well, just one…. We're gonna be stealing the treasured possession of a _preacher_. This doesn't exactly seem… heroic." Zodiac opened his mouth, probably for a witty retort, paused, and closed it again to think on it a bit more.

"Well… yeah, it's a tad on the roguish side, but what were you expecting? And it's better than letting the bad guys get their hands on it."

"Who exactly _are_ the bad guys? Monsters? Because if they are, then that still doesn't explain why we're breaking and entering."

"Kid, the monsters are the least of your worries. They're the Little Leagues. I'm talking about the big timers, forces so old they make western culture look like it's in diapers. Guys who make the earth quiver and the skies bleed. The guys pushing around all the other players. Those guys are _not_ the kind of people you want to get this kind of firepower, and this was one of the last ones that's lightly guarded. If we know about it, you can be sure that _they_ now about it."

Something told me that Zodiac was either making this all up, or didn't actually know anything about the—powers—that—be. Either way, I wasn't gonna fall for his bluff.

"If these forces are so dangerous, then why are the gods sending a bunch of kids and teenagers to find the magical McGuffin needed to save the universe? Why aren't they doing it instead? And why does saving the world have to involve stealing? At least with the guitar we got it from… I dunno, _somewhere_ , but this is somebody else's property. Why can't they just keep it? Or if it's that important, why can't we ask for it?"

"If we just asked for it, would he listen? Would we just go 'hey there Mr. Flair, we just need to take that magical weapon of mass destruction off of you, I hope you don't mind….' He'd check us into a mental institute! And if he _does_ know what it is, I'm pretty sure he won't give it to us. If we leave it with him, then 'the bad guys' are gonna come after him like loan sharks, and he's not gonna have their payment ready. Trust me, we're stealing this off of him for his own good."

"But what about the gods? Why don't we even have any backup? We don't even have training!" Zodiac shrugged his shoulders, his expression drawn.

"Don't ask me. My only answer is that they're jerks. If you wanna survive as a demigod, you better learn not to rely on them. They'll only turn on you when it matters."

I was planning on interrogating him more. I'd pictured an entire argument about the importance of sticking to your morals no matter what. I even had a few lines prepared in advance. But seeing him withdraw like that, a pensive mask on his face, false as a photo, I figured this might not be the best time for that. Besides, I had to admit that he was right. I didn't really trust guys like Flair, but after hearing him speaking, with all the excitement and innocence of a little kid, I didn't want to think about what would happen if monsters came after him. Or how his supporters would feel knowing he 'mysteriously' died. I had to give the win to Zodiac, even if it didn't sit well in my stomach.

"Okay, fine," I said. "So, when do we start?"

"We have to hit him tonight," Zodiac replied. "My informant's got all the normal guard rotations and patrol routes for today and the whole of last week, but since they didn't come here with them, there's no telling how long that will be accurate for. Plus, I'm pretty sure he won't stay in town for long. Now the question is, what are _you_ gonna do?" We turned our attention to Nico. He looked like he was only half paying attention, staring up at the ceiling, biting into a blood red pomegranate. I wasn't sure where he got the fruit from, but he certainly didn't buy it, and for some reason it made me feel uncomfortable.

"Well, my target isn't the Lance. That's your job, given to you by the royal geniuses of Olympus." The sarcasm was heavy in his tone. "As for me, I've got more stuff that I need to find, my own quest to do. Maybe if you're lucky, we can meet again."

"I get the feeling that meeting you again will not be a sign of good fortune," I said. He pondered my words for a second, then grudgingly accepted.

"By the way, if that guitar is slowing you down, I can hang onto it for you, keep it safe at camp." Ludmila only just realised that he was talking to her, and looked down at her guitar. She looked reluctant to hand it over, almost like she'd already gotten attached before plucking a single string, but she eventually handed it to him.

"You're going back to camp?" Zodiac asked. "Sorry, but we don't exactly know a lot about you. Do you mind if I can get some kind of confirmation that you're actually from there?"

"Apart from my camp bead necklace? Well, we can send an Iris message and talk to Chiron directly." Nico didn't really look like he wanted to talk to _anybody_ , but he stood up with Zodiac and left, heading towards the fountain. It was just Ludmila and I left behind. I guess my brain was still dwelling on my convo with Zodiac, because it took me a second to register that 'it was just Ludmila and I'.

I didn't know how long they would take to get back, so starting some kind of conversation might have been a good idea. But what was I supposed to talk about? All we'd really been talking about was the quest and these 'mysterious forces of evil' and I was pretty sure that Ludmila was as sick of that as I was. Or was she? How was I supposed to know what she was thinking anyway? She kind of blended into the background anyway, especially when things started heating up.

I could talk about a cartoon or anime I liked I guess, or maybe a book. It would be easier if I talked about something I was familiar with. But then I would sound like a total dork and that would be terrible. Maybe I could ask her what kind of music she listened to or something? With how attached she got to that guitar, maybe she liked rock?

And if she didn't? And there was an awkward pause afterwards? Okay, there had to be something safer. Like, I dunno, the weather?

It looked like Ludmila hadn't even noticed me. She'd taken off her sunhat and was slowly spinning it around, observing and playing with it. I definitely felt nervous, but at least it wasn't as bad as normal or at school. It was probably because Ludmila just looked a lot more approachable. It still wasn't easy though. I finally figured that I would start with something that we all had in common. Or at least, that I _think_ we all had in common.

"So, what exactly _is_ your power anyway?" I asked. "I mean… some demigods have some kind of weird quirk about them. Zodiac teleports, and apparently Nico super teleports. That girl back at camp is basically The Flash meets Rainbow Dash too. So what about you? I can't really pinpoint yours."

"It's not really that cool," she mumbled.

"You have a _super power_. You could say it was to find car keys and missing remotes and it would be pretty cool." Ludmila thought about it for a bit, then finally relented.

"Put your hand on the table," she said. I complied, drumming my fingers on the table top. She rested her hand on top of it. They felt warm, and… _fingery_. I wasn't exactly getting the 'lightning' or 'fireworks' feeling talked about in books and movies.

"Umm… okay?"

"How do they feel?"

"I dunno, like _fingers_? A little tough maybe, like you like rock climbing or something but still…."

"Okay then." She closed her eyes. I could make out a faint yellow outline around her hand. Suddenly, her fingers' temperature spiked up, jumping from warm leather to a burning stove in a matter of seconds. I yelped, yanking back my hand before she could scorch me anymore.

"What the heck was that?" I yelled. Ludmila opened her eyes, looking at her hand and the smoke coming off of them, almost like she was surprised they didn't burst into flames.

"I can control my body temperature at will," she said. "Hot, cold, boiling, freezing… I can change how I feel almost instantly. If I try really hard, I can even set things on fire by touching them."

"That's awesome!" I yelled, then covered my mouth as I started getting a few stares. "I mean… that's pretty cool. So you're like the Human Torch then! Can you hurl fireballs and make infernos? Or maybe freeze people solid?" She shook her head.

"I can't expel it or cover myself in flames or ice. I can only change how I feel _inside_ my body. If I want to make fire, I have to touch something flammable, and I can't get cold enough to freeze water on touch. It's not really that useful on its own…."

"But you can conduct it through other stuff, right? That must be why you chose the fire poi as weapons. You heat them up enough and hit someone with them. The heat and friction makes them light up like a match, and you can now burn people out of your reach!" She nodded her head. "That's so freaking cool! What were you talking about? Lame power? Please."

"So what's yours?" She asked. I hesitated for a second.

"I'm… not sure I have one," I replied. "Apparently, Athena kids don't really get 'powers'. They're all really smart though, and good fighters, so we can learn to rely on ourselves. I guess I'm no different?"

"Oh… sorry."

"Nah, don't be. It's how I've been all this time, I don't think I would ever really get used to having super powers. That way, it will look ten times cooler when I'm winning a fight on my own! Just think about it! 'A lone warrior who's only weapons are the courage in his fists and justice in his heart! Striking down the forces of evil in the name of all those who cry out for peace!'" I stood up on the chairs, planting one foot on the table top and striking a pose, one arm resting on my knee and the other hand on my hips.

"My enemies will look at me and wonder 'where did you get such awesome power? Was it a gift from the gods themselves?' and I shall answer 'nay… but from hard work, true courage, and the power of friendship!'" My foot slipped, and I stumbled, my arms swinging wildly to keep my balance.

"Excuse me, sir," the girl at the counter said. "Can you please take a seat? You're disturbing the other customers." I looked around and saw I was attracting stares. Great, I got ahead of myself.

"Sorry," I said, slowly sitting down. That didn't exactly go according to plan. It probably would have helped if I actually _had_ a plan. I looked at Ludmila, feeling a little embarrassed. She was covering her mouth with her hands, stifling a giggle. She was laughing? Wow, achievement unlocked. Unless she was laughing _at_ me. I tried not to think about it. "She was just jealous of how heroic I looked," I said.

"I'm not so sure about that," Ludmila replied.

"I'm telling you! She should have given me two more minutes. I had a whole battle scenario planned and a shounen hero speech concocted. It would have been awesome."

"Sure it would." She couldn't hide the smile on her face. That's when Zodiac re-entered the café, although now he was alone.

"He's legit," he said. "Chiron talked to him and everything. He'll be taking the guitar back with him so we won't have to lug it around all the time."

"You sent it back before we got to test it?" I asked. "No fair! I wanted to see what it would have done…."

"Oh yeah, we should have tried it out huh? Maybe, if we played the right note, the whole thing would spout a boiling hot geyser right beneath our feet and grill us in our own skin?"

"That… doesn't sound fun…."

"Well that's what happens when you mess around with divine tools. It's probably better we didn't try it out ourselves."

"Right… so, all that's left is to steal the Lance, right?"

"Yup! We've got a couple of hours until sundown, so we may as well find somewhere to stay until then, take the time to work out all the details of the plan. When the clock strikes nine thirty, we head out. Got it?"

"Got it!" Ludmila and I both replied.

"Good." He opened the top of his milkshake and downed the whole thing in one swig. "Alright then, let's…." He froze for a bit, his face tightening again as the brain freeze hit him. He blinked rapidly, trying to chase it away. "Right. Then let's get outta here. We've got preachers to rob."

* * *

I read a book once that said something like 'the cool night air washed over me and calmed my racing heart', give or take a few adjectives. That description was totally inaccurate. It was more like the wind was trying to tear the clothes off my back, and lashed me with the harsh whip of the cold. And that was putting it _poetically_. How I actually felt was more akin to:

"It's freaking cold."

"Stop being a baby," Zodiac replied, even though he was also shivering. Hypocrite. "I know this is gonna sound hard for you guys, but _follow the plan completely and totally_. No getting side tracked. We go directly to Jordan Flair's room. Do _not_ pass GO, and do _not_ collect two hundred. Are we clear?"

"Crystal," Ludmila said.

"C'mon man, have faith in us!" I added.

"I'll have faith in you guys when I see results. Just follow after me and stick to the script. As long as you listen to me, we'll be fine." We nodded our heads. We looked up at the big golden hotel front door. I gulped, and the others looked just as nervous as I did. Well, at least Ludmila did. I couldn't tell about Zodiac. I swallowed my fear, took a step forward, and pushed open the door.

The operation had begun.

 **AN:** **Gah I wanted to put more Nico in so badly because I've got all this cool stuff I need him to do but it'll wreck the plot if I do that and just GAAAAH! (If you can't tell, Nico is one of my favourite characters...) Well, he'll be back, and he'll be super cool, but he doesn't like to follow the rules, not even my own, so for now he'll leave our heroes to fight through near death experiences on their own...**

 **Anyway, a little update on that Powerpuff idea. So, that's _definitely_ happening since I've managed to type out like, four, horrible, unedited chapters so far. Don't hold me to this, but by around next week I should have enough of them just done and stockpiled away for me to start editing and posting them and they'll be _awesome_! I'm terrible with deadlines, so no promises. But if it _is_ done, I'm just wondering when the best day to start posting them will be. Either Friday or Monday since that's when I used to post these chapters so I'm used to those days. I'm hovering around Friday since... well, _it's Friday_ , and that means I can post this, and then GoS immediately afterwards, but I dunno. My only real problem now is that I have no idea what to call it, and names are important! Anyway, I'll figure it out, and I'll alert you when it's up in the next update of this or something (ha, up in the update...). So, till then, enjoy your weekend everybody!**


	17. BIKO GIVES US FLYING LESSONS

**This is one of the few stories that I _really_ planned a lot before I started (well, by chapter two but close enough) but I always leave little bits of wiggle room here and there because I get lazy, and I divert _a lot_ because stories grow and change and characters do unexpected things. However, I never really knew how I would end this... Until now! And I'm feeling _hyped because it will be so darn cool!_ Anyway, don't worry. We've still got quite a ride to get through before then. I think I'm... halfway through? Yeah, something like that...**

 **I'm a little worried about the next chapter though. It still needs a _lot_ of reworking, so I _might_ update next week a little later than usual, maybe Tuesday or something, or if it _really_ goes haywire then the week after. Probably not, but don't be surprised if that happens. Like, it's okay, but it's kinda... _mediocre_ , and that's bad because it's a super important chapter. So yeah, if I don't update on time next week, I'm really really sorry, but I don't want to write anything other than my best with this so understand me! Well, I've rambled more than I need to so here goes nothing!**

 **CHAPTER 17: BIKO GIVES US FLYING LESSONS (Ludmila's thoughts)**

Wow, things went wrong _really_ quickly. And everything was going according to plan for five minutes too.

We entered the hotel lobby, just casually strolling into the building like nothing was wrong. Before we started off, Zodiac managed to print out a copy of the building's blueprints, and spent the better part of an hour studying them. Now he should have been able to teleport us to anywhere within the building as long as we got inside first. That wasn't a problem. All we had to do was walk in. We didn't even needto go and talk to the receptionist.

We just headed towards the corner of the lobby, just before the turnoff that lead to the elevator. There was nobody nearby, and nobody could see us.

"You think you can do this?" Biko asked.

"Please, you doubt my skill," came back Zodiac's confident reply. He grasped our shoulders and closed his eyes. The world span around me, and it was like my whole body was getting pulled through a vortex inside out. I could barely stand, let alone move, when we came to a standstill.

The walls were gone, instead replaced by open air. The frigid night air tried to freeze us to the rooftop of the hotel. Or at least I could only guess that it was the same hotel. Around the building's perimeter, just before the railings that signalled the building's edge, were a bunch of red and green lights, bathing us in a creepy, warped light. I held on tight to my hat, hoping that the wind didn't blow it off my head and down a fifty foot drop to the streets below.

"Umm, Zodiac, where are we?" Biko asked.

"Oh… well, that wasn't meant to happen," Zodiac said sheepishly.

"We're meant to be right outside of Jordan Flair's room. What are we doing here?"

"Sorry, I think I overshot a little. It's really hard to judge distances if I can't see where I'm going…."

"You overshot by ten floors! We're on the _roof_!"

"Would you like to explain how and why you're here?" We were so caught off guard, we didn't even notice that somebody else was up there with us.

He was standing by the door, leaning against the wall just next to it, a lit cigarette trapped beneath his teeth, illuminating his whole face in an amber glow. His hair was as brown as mine, and its fringe was just about to cover his grey eyes. His face was angular, like it was expertly sculpted from marble. His red jacket was placed casually over his tight grey t-shirt and his jeans were the colour of asphalt. His hand was on the door handle, as if he was just about to leave when we randomly appeared in front of him. Our timing couldn't have been worse if we'd come to a funeral with balloons singing happy birthday.

"Hello there, good sir!" Zodiac said quickly. "We were just a little bit lost, you know? We're the… special entertainment! For Mr. Stills! Sorry, could you direct us to room three five two please?"

"You're on the roof of the building," he said, completely ignoring Zodiac. "To get here, you would have had to pass through the door. The one that I'm standing next to. I don't like to brag, but I'm a pretty perceptive guy. I would know if you had wandered up to here by sheer chance. But you didn't. You just _appeared_." He stood up, slowly walking towards us. "Are you gonna tell me that you scaled up the side of the building?"

"It's a distinct possibility," Zodiac said. His hand had slowly drifted towards his pocket. I could see that he was getting ready to draw his slingshot at any moment.

"Even if you did, there's no way you could have gotten up it on your own. Unless, you have special powers too. Powers like mine…." I looked at Zodiac with worry, hoping he could figure something out. He didn't return the look. Instead, he was focussed dead ahead, never taking his eyes off of the guy.

"I don't know what you're talking about," Zodiac lied.

"It doesn't matter. I already heard that you're looking for Mr. Flair. Even if you are just some kind of crazed super fans, I can't let people with abilities like yours get anywhere close to him."

"What are you, his bodyguard?"

"You could say that." Something that looked like a giant shadow came out of him, pouncing like a jaguar as it wrapped itself around Biko. He cried out in alarm as it bound him like steel cords, levitating him a few feet in the air.

"Biko!" I cried out. I reached out to try and free him, but froze when I saw what it was.

It looked like a giant pair of hands, deep maroon with bony fingers and gnarled nails, each the size of a high def. TV screen. Every now and then they would pulsate deep red like a furnace was going off beneath the tough, calloused skin.

"Put him down!" I yelled, pulling out my poi.

"Make any sudden moves and this guy will be dead before you can regret it." As if to prove his point, the hands gave Biko a sudden squeeze, the guy crying out in pain. I froze in my tracks. I was pretty sure if I threw my poi, I could knock him in the face with a nice, clean fireball, but those hands already looked like they were digging into Biko. I didn't know how strong they were, but if their size was a clue then they looked like they could crush him like a grape.

The guy smiled, shoving his own hands into his pockets.

"Good. Smart move kid. That's the way it's meant to be. Wait a second… where's the-" He stopped abruptly, crying out in pain as he collapsed to his knees, Zodiac standing behind him, having hit him in the head with his elbow. The hands faded away, Biko falling from their grasp, doubled over and practically coughing up his lungs.

"That… that was terrible!" he complained. "It was… it was like… I couldn't feel my body… I was just a disembodied head or something…."

Zodiac jogged over to him and helped him up.

"Are you alright?" he said. He shakily nodded his head.

"Who was that guy?" Biko asked. "That power of his… is he a demigod?"

"Either that, or he's a monster. Come on, we don't want to be around when he wakes up."

"Couldn't you knock him out for longer? Like, choke him or something?"

"What, and risk killing the guy? I'm a thief, not a murderer. Choke someone for too long and they can suffer brain damage and all sorts of nasty stuff. Better for everyone I just give him a concussion. Now stop wasting time, and let's go!" Zodiac teleported again, and I was guessing this time he went behind the door. I yanked it open, and sure enough, he was already sprinting down the steps.

"You think you can teleport us to this guy's room now?" I asked.

"Not until I'm really close. I'm not chancing another risky jump." We ran until we were sure that guy wasn't anywhere near us anymore, then slowed to a brisk walk. There was no reason for anybody else to think that we weren't meant to be there as long as we looked natural.

So, like the brave and honourable demigods we are, we took the most heroic mode of transport available to us: the elevator.

"So, the same plan as before, guys," Zodiac said. "Biko, Ludmila, you two watch the door. Don't stand right by it, just kind of wander about like you're waiting for somebody, just something to look less conspicuous. I'll sneak inside via teleport and steal the lance. When I'm done, I'll teleport out, and zap us back outside the hotel, or at least close enough to the ground floor that we can land without dying."

"That second part of the plan doesn't sound safe," I pointed out. "Have you ever done this before?"

"Oh yeah, loads of times, and I only ever broke one of my legs! Well, twice, but it was still the same leg! Actually, maybe it was-"

"Okay, okay! I get it!" I interrupted. "You can stop talking now. Please." The elevator ground to a halt, staying still for a moment before the elevator doors opened.

"Welcome back."

We all leaped backwards, shocked out of words as we bumped into each other. It was the same guy from before, standing right in front of us with a slightly irritated smile. He looked pretty calm, but I could see a few beads of sweat on his face.

"You!" Zodiac yelled.

"That was rude, hitting me in the head," he said. "And I just wanted to talk." I didn't let him, punching him in the face. He just barely dodged out of the way, catching my arm and tossing me over his shoulder and onto my back. Zodiac and Biko both swung blows at him, but he casually dodged all of them, weaving, even shoving his hands back in his pockets. Zodiac tried to grab him, but the guy just head—butted him, stunning him temporarily. Biko launched a fist at him, but he grabbed his arm and tossed him to the ground as well. He grabbed Zodiac and did the same thing to him, throwing him like a Frisbee so he landed facedown next to us.

Zodiac was the first to recover, springing to his feet just moments before us.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" I asked.

"Simple: run!"

Run like a coward. I could dig that. We turned heel and ran, heading away from him. Amazingly, I didn't even hear him following us.

"You can run, but it won't do you any good," he called out after us. It was better than fighting him at least.

We rounded a corner, blindly sprinting in a panic before Zodiac ground to a halt, Biko and I doing the same thing.

"Why'd you stop?" Biko cried out indignantly.

"Because of _that_." Biko looked up, and so did I. We were standing right in front of the same guy we were running from. And it didn't look like he had somehow run all the way ahead of us, he was still in the exact same position as before: right in front of the elevator.

"What the—what? But we—when did we…."

"Are you lost?" he asked, a sarcastic smile on his face.

"Okay, let's try that again," Zodiac said slowly, running back the way we came. This time, he waited until he had made it to the next corner, slowed down, and peered around it. Again, the guy from before didn't even move, still long behind us. "Alright, it's clear," Zodiac said. Slowly, we all turned the corner with him and took two steps. We froze.

"Are you sure you guys don't need a map?" the he asked, casually lighting another cigarette. He looked like he was struggling to hold in a laugh. "I can redirect you to your room, honest."

"You're _already_ redirecting us!" Zodiac yelled, pulling out his slingshot and drawing it. "Who the hell are you? There's no way you're just an ordinary bodyguard."

"You're right about not being ordinary," he said. "I'm just here for the ride and to pay off my next set of bills. I'm what you would call… a hired hand. Unlike the actual bodyguards, I don't care about ordinary people going to meet Mr. Flair, armed or not. Instead, I'm here to stop brats like you and I from bumping into him. You could give him a real scare, you know?"

"And how're you gonna do that? You might have weird powers, but there's only one of you. If we fight seriously, there's no way you can win." As if to demonstrate his words, I began spinning my poi rapidly, fire automatically building up around them in two fiery whirlwinds. The other guy whistled to himself.

"You're right. I can't beat you all." He raised his hands in the air in surrender. Biko smiled, and rightfully so. He didn't even have to draw his pathetic excuse for weapon and the bad guy was giving himself up! "Well, not without using my trump card at least." He slammed both of his hands on the ground, the giant red ones from before appearing superimposed on top of his own. " _Verse! The Worl-_ "

The air around us shimmered, like we were caught in a mirage, his voice cutting off like he'd stopped midsentence. For a millisecond, it was like somebody had inverted all the colours in the world. I didn't even have time to think or understand what happened when the air returned to normal. Suddenly, it felt like my whole body was on fire, like all of my nerves were being plucked like guitar chords one by one. I was flung backwards, slamming against the wall with a crash.

I crumpled to the floor, too dazed to even tell where I was anymore. I tried to wake myself up and look around. Every movement hurt, like somebody was stepping on me with spiked boots. I could feel warm blood spreading around my stomach. Honestly, I was too scared to even look at the wound. I was pretty sure that if the pain didn't get me, I would pass out from the shock.

Biko and Zodiac weren't much better, flung to random parts of the hallway, lying down on their sides or their heads slumped down against their chests. Even worse, there were monsters everywhere, weird looking snake ladies with spears and shields. I have no idea where they came from because they weren't there a second ago. I looked back at the bodyguard. He was now stood up straight, his hands dug firmly in his pockets.

"Wow, I get a rush every time I do that!" he yelled. "So much power, all between my fingertips!" He had a mad look in his eyes, like somebody who'd fired a gun for the first time and enjoyed it. He even began cackling madly to himself.

"What… what the hell was that?" I asked as I tried to force myself back to my feet.

"Don't you guys know?" he replied between his insane cackling. "I've never used it on a human before... This is amazing!"

Before I knew what was happening, Zodiac had appeared next to me, one hand holding onto Biko while he grabbed my shoulder with the other. In the next instance, we were gone, behind the wall of advancing snake monsters.

"Guys, get up," he said, panic creeping up in his voice. Biko stood up groggily, drawing his broken sword for all the good it would do him.

"That guy's a demigod?" I asked. "He's insane! What even was that?!"

"Beats me. I never knew fighting a demigod was this intense. I have no idea what his power is…."

"Even _you_ don't know?"

"We'll never find out if we don't make it out of here alive. Come on, let's go while he still thinks we're there!" We sprinted down the hallway, not stopping for even a second. It seemed like every guest on that entire floor was some kind of monster because doors and walls were flung open or torn down as more snake monsters and hulking ogres appeared at every turn. One door even opened with a skeleton still wearing a pink showering cap and a towel around his waist.

Everything hurt, but I swung my poi anyway, vaporising a weird giant ant that leaped at me, trying to tear off my face. Zodiac fired well aimed shots into monster's eyes when he could, and when they got too close he would just teleport all of us a few feet away. Sadly, Biko wasn't much help. Nothing really got close enough for him to jab them with his pathetic excuse for a sword, and I could sense him freaking out every time a new creature jumped in our paths.

"Which door is it?" I yelled as I kicked a snake lady in the chest with a superheated boot. She disintegrated into a burning hot pile of sand.

"The last one on the right," Zodiac replied. "Just five more doors and we're there!"

" _The World!_ " An explosion went off in front of us, knocking us all backwards and onto our backs. When the dust cleared up, that bodyguard from before was standing in front of us, the two disembodied hands floating by his sides.

Zodiac didn't give him a chance to say or do anything, firing at him. I was pretty sure he was aiming at his head, but his aim was off while he was on his back, the pellet flying right past his ear. He loaded up another one, this time aiming for his chest. One of the hands drifted in front of him, catching the pellet in mid—air before it could hit him.

"Hey, easy! Watch where you're aiming that thing!" he yelled. Zodiac didn't care, firing again and again. None of the shots was anywhere close to a fatal hit though, all of them getting stopped by the hands. Whenever the bodyguard tried to slam his own hands to the ground, Zodiac shot at them, forcing him to protect himself instead.

"Go!" Zodiac roared. "I'll keep this guy distracted. You guys get the lance!" I didn't want to leave Zodiac to fight him alone, but it was a heck of a lot better than facing him myself. We sprinted past him, Biko sliding around him while I jumped, leapfrogging over his head.

"You think… Zodiac… will be okay?" Biko gasped.

"I dunno. Whatever that guy did, he can't do it again as long as he can't touch the ground, so he should be fine." We kept running until we reached the end of the hall. The end lead to a porch that was open to the city skyline, and probably a fatal drop to the streets. On our right was what looked like just another hotel door, and that's how we knew we found the right one. No monsters or ghouls leaped out of it dressed in their PJs.

Standing next to the door was this huge guy dressed in a black suit and sunglasses (indoors like a moron) who somehow hadn't noticed the commotion just a few feet away. He _did_ notice us though. He stood in the way, barring us from proceeding with his hands spread wide.

"Stop right there, this room is—oof!" Biko tackled him, flipping him over his back so he was sailing through the air towards me. I super—cooled my fist until it felt like a block of ice and punched him in the nose. I'm not sure where the strength came from, but the guy definitely felt it, hitting the ground like a sack of bricks. He was knocked out cold, literally, blood dribbling from his broken nose.

"S—sorry," I apologised. Biko didn't even bother, or maybe he just didn't notice the guy altogether. He was already looking at the door, trying to find some way in.

"We didn't think this through," he said. "We can't get in without Zodiac, and he's still fighting with that weird guy."

"Zodiac told _us_ to stick to the plan and yet he's not in the right position either."

"No planning for a monster slumber party I guess. Let's try break the door down."

"And alert Jordan Flair inside? No, I think I can open it…." I observed the lock. Luckily, it wasn't electronic. This wouldn't be too hard. I grasped the doorknob, focussing all of my power into my hand. In a matter of moments, the knob started to melt, bits of brass and aluminium dribbling down the door and over my hand. I buried my fingers inside where it had just melted, grabbing the mechanisms inside and doing the same thing to them. In a few seconds, we could just push the door open. "Whoa… that's really freaking cool."

"Thank you," I replied, feeling a little embarrassed. I tried to ignore his awestruck expression as I shook the melted metal off my arm and instead focussed on the suite.

The place looked way too comfortable. There was a plasma screen TV against the wall, and opposite that a giant queen sized bed with scarlet bedsheets. There was a fish tank in one corner of the room for some reason, and beneath the table it was resting on was a small fridge, probably already stocked with all sorts of stuff. The wardrobe was open and filled with expensive looking suits and designer clothes. To our immediate right was a door that probably led to the bathroom, the sound of a shower and somebody singing coming from it. What was really impressive about the place, however, was the view. An entire wall was instead made up of windows and glass doors so they could be opened up to the night outside. It made me feel a little nauseous as I approached it and looked straight down, seeing the cars move around like ants below us.

"Come on, let's find this stupid necklace," I said, trying not to think about how high up we were. "It should be made of Imperial gold, so it will shine and glow like your sword." We scoured the room as quietly as we could, trying not to alert the guy in the shower. Hopefully, the sound of the running water and Jordan Flair's bathroom choir session would drown out any noise we made.

We checked all the usual places he could have put it: his bedside tables, the cupboards, under the pillow, inside his mattress… we even checked inside the electronic safe, melting through it the same way I melted the door open. There were a whole bunch of bank notes, and something that looked suspiciously like a love letter, but that was it. Nothing that resembled either a lance or a necklace.

"It's nowhere!" Biko complained.

"It has to be _somewhere_. He never goes anywhere without it, right? We just have to keep looking." At least, that's what I was thinking until I heard the shower turn off. Both of us panicked, looking around for a place to hide. I dived for the door, but the metal had cooled in place after I shut it. I would have to melt it down again, and I didn't have the time. We both spotted the open wardrobe, looked at each other, and nodded our heads.

We scrambled towards it, packing ourselves in and shutting the door just as we heard the bathroom door opening.

We were so tightly packed that I wasn't actually sure if I was hearing my own heartbeat in my ears or Biko's. It was awkward, uncomfortable, embarrassing, and a life or death situation. Contrary to popular Hollywood belief, this was _not_ romantic in the slightest. It was just awkward, not to mention terrifying.

The keyhole was around where my elbow was, so I couldn't even see outside, nor could I tell where Jordan Flair was. What would happen if he found us? What would he do? What would… what would he be _wearing_? He just came out of the shower!

I was pretty sure my face was rapidly changing from deep scarlet to sea green. I tried not to think about it. Instead, I focused on the sound of his footsteps squelching on the floor and dripping water. They started getting louder and louder, as if he was getting closer to us. I held my breath. I was scared to even _think_ lest he somehow heard my brainwaves or something. It could have been anything from ten seconds to ten minutes of us just staying stock still, not even daring to breath.

Light flooded my eyes as the wardrobe opened. I wasn't sure who was more startled: us from the sudden influx of lighting on our retinas, or him from finding two teenagers crammed in his wardrobe in a compromising position.

He was just like how Biko had described him: pulled straight from a movie scene, with wavy golden blond hair and brighter—than—blue eyes. His face would have normally looked pretty handsome, like he was chiselled from Mount Olympus, but he was too busy being shocked with his mouth hanging open to flash us a picture perfect smile. He was wearing a red bathrobe (thank _all_ the gods) and I couldn't really see anything else. What caught my attention, however, was the brilliant gold necklace hanging around his neck. Actually, it wasn't exactly a necklace.

It was in the shape of a cross, with some intricate designs etched into it. Even the beads that hung on its string or whatever it was were solid gold and ivory. It had to be the most expensive rosary in the world.

"What are you… what? What are you doing here?" he asked in shock. We couldn't really balance in the wardrobe any longer, falling onto the ground in a heap. "Who are you? What do you want?"

My brain stopped working. I guess we really _hadn't_ thought this far. What were we meant to do if he took the lance with him into the bathroom? What were we meant to do if he spotted us? Zodiac said that we would just run, but we were currently locked in and couldn't teleport. Nothing was happening the way it was meant to!

Luckily, Biko picked up the slack instead, speaking on behalf of both of us.

"I watched you when you were speaking in town this morning," he said, sounding nothing like how terrified he looked only moments ago. "Wow, I was really impressed! I never knew that the word of God could have so much power, so much _passion_ behind it! I really wanted to meet you but circumstances couldn't really allow it. I suppose God wanted us to meet if we're here now though. It really is a huge honour to meet you!" He bowed, extending his hand at the same time, then realising he couldn't do both, straightened up so he could just shake his hand.

I stared at him, completely dumbstruck. Had he been taking some kind of improv drama classes or something? If he was, he was already a pro. He looked completely genuine, gushing with nervous fan boy excitement.

Jordan Flair seemed to buy it, smiling warmly and shaking his hand.

"Well, I can't exactly approve of your unorthodox methods of entry, but I'm always happy to see my sermons changing the lives of my followers. What can I do for you two? Or rather, what can we do for the Lord?" Bells of recognition were ringing in my head. I remembered in history class seeing videos of JFK making speeches, and this guy sounded a lot like him, minus the accent.

"Well, I just had a few questions I wanted to ask, and hopefully to get your autograph. You don't mind, right?" I could see what Biko was doing. He was trying to lower his guard enough so that he could steal the necklace off him, or at least knock him out and take it by force.

"Sure! I'd be happy to help, as long as you can answer a question of mine!" he said. Suddenly, Biko's eyes bulged in shock. He cried out in pain and sunk to his knees. I was confused for a second until I realised what was happening. Jordan Flair was crushing his hand, shrinking it to almost half its size in his grip. "Do you take me for some kind of fool?"

I pulled my poi out of my pockets, but Flair grabbed Biko's throat, stopping me in my tracks.

"Careful little missy," he said. "One false move and your friend will never walk again." Biko squeaked in terror as he squeezed, as if emphasising the point. "I can hear chaos and calamity all the way from in here. This entire floor is filled with monsters. They wouldn't get so agitated unless something, or someone, was nearby that could get their blood boiling. And since you've somehow appeared in my room, which is locked and forty storeys up, that must mean that _you're_ the cause of it. Am I right, half—bloods?"

So he knew we were demigods, and we were trapped in his room. This was officially a crisis. And what do we do during a crisis? Easy: hit 'em where it hurts! Biko swung his fist with force, landing a critical hit that stopped Flair in his tracks, his eyes wide in agony as he let go of him. Biko snatched the rosary off of his neck, and ran towards the door.

Flair recovered quickly though. He grabbed Biko by his ankles and tossed him to the window. He slammed against it, sliding down in a daze, the glass lightly cracked.

I tried to fight instead, swinging a burning punch at his face. It connected nicely, leaving a nice big red burn mark across his cheek. He didn't seem to care though, slapping me _hard_. I almost spun in a full circle on the spot, collapsing in a daze on the ground, my eyes staring blankly up at the ceiling as my mind tried to process what truck had just hit me.

Flair marched towards Biko who was starting to get up, shaking the dizziness away. He snatched his rosary back, and without hesitation, booted Biko in the chest. The glass shattered into a thousand pieces, falling away into the night sky, and taking Biko with it. That shocked me out of my stupor.

"Biko!" I screamed, forcing myself to my feet just in time to see Biko disappearing from view with a scream. I felt a whole whirlwind of emotions raging inside me. Grief, terror, panic, loss, rage, fury, vengeance. I couldn't sort through all of them. I could barely _identify_ them, but I knew that Biko had just fallen down a four or five hundred foot drop. I definitely knew what I needed to do.

Screaming in fury, I swung my poi at his face, the poi lit on fire before they had even touched him. He just barely ducked it, my poi instead embedding itself in the wall like a wrecking ball. I yanked it out, already swinging the other one like a spinning flail of death. I slammed it to my right, setting his bed on fire, then swung it back. Flair held up one hand in panic, his other one clutching his rosary. A second later, I heard a clang like metal on metal. In the fist that he held above him was now a pure golden spear, the light from my fire reflecting off of it like it was coming from within the weapon. He tried jabbing me with it repeatedly, but I ducked and dodged out of the way, finally catching the spear beneath my armpit. He lifted the whole thing up, almost slamming my head against the ceiling if I hadn't let go of it, coming down to punch him in the face.

It was all I could do from such short range, just rain down blow after blow on him, Flair staggering as he desperately tried blocking them. He swung his leg, his shin connecting with my side and sending me toppling sideways. The open window was to my right, wind rushing and howling through it. It was really scenic, but it meant that one false move would send me toppling to my grave like… like….

I opened my eyes in shock, unable to speak. Flair must have thought I was stunned to see the lance in action.

"You must be pretty surprised to see such a fabulous weapon spring from my rosary!" he said. "This is indeed my pride and joy, a sure sign that the Lord is watching over me at all times!"

Right as he said that, the wind became a hurricane, bits of furniture and appliances hovering in the air. Anything that wasn't nailed down either floated, or got blown out of the room, and that list of jettisoned objects nearly included us too. Flair looked at the window, trying to find out what was happening.

The cocky smirk or playful smile was gone, replaced by a look of determination. Biko was hovering in the air, a small green cyclone spinning around his body, his clothes rippling in the wind. The whole suite was thrown into disarray just from him being _near_ it, and I could see the TV flying off into the nether. The bed soon followed, gently sliding out and plummeting to the ground.

He pointed his fingertips at Flair, wind building up around his arm. A second later, he unleashed a funnel of wind, like a horizontal tornado, blasting Flair into his wall, the guy collapsing against the floor, slipping out of consciousness. Biko flew into the room, the tornado dissipating as he jogged towards Flair's body.

He picked up the lance from his slack grip, examining it for a second.

"Biko!" I cried.

"Back from the dead," he said, a smile spreading on his face. "But they never found my killer, so I jumped up out this grave like Michael Jackson in Thriller!"

"Aaand you're back," I said, wishing that he had just stayed silent. We were interrupted as Zodiac warped into the room, tumbling onto the floor with cuts and bruises all over his body.

"You… you guys done?" he asked. I pointed over at the slump figure of Flair. "Great…. Let's get outta here!" Something heavy slammed into the door. Once. Twice. An axe head embedded itself in the wooden frame of the door, twisting and turning. It was only a matter of seconds before they would break it down, especially after I'd already loosened it up for them.

"We're trapped," I said, backing away from it, only to remember that if I took another step backwards I would be taking a plunge to my death.

"Well, there is one exit," Zodiac said, pointing behind me.

"Zodiac, that's a one way trip!"

"Yeah, Biko added, "and I'm not sure I can do that… weird thing again."

"Well, between _this_ one way trip, and the one with teeth, swords, and _battle—axes_ , I think I'll take my chance with the fall."

"It's fifty storeys up!"

"Only? Please. Been there, done that."

"What?!" The door busted open, monsters streaming into the room, roaring angrily and swinging their weapons at everything within their reach, including each other.

"Now or never!"

"Wait, let me-" He didn't even let me finish, dragging Biko by the arm and rugby tackling me out the window. I screamed loud and long, my voice echoing across the streets of Ohio.

And _that_ was the last thing I saw before the world went dark.

 **AN: Huzzah! I have finally done it! I can't believe it and I feel absolutely ridiculous but it was fun and it is good! I have posted the first chapter of my Powerpuff Girls fanfic! It is good, and the first chapter is also pretty intense (I believe stories must start with a bang!) so I do recommend that you check it out at some point if you like this. Obviously it gets _much_ better than the first chapter after a while, but that's never an excuse for a lame start so it should be fun.**

 **It's called _Princess Versus The Great Divide_ and you can (obviously) find it in my profile so go check it out!**

 **Summary/really-should-be-called-the-blurb: _'_ _Everything is all about the 'Powerpuff Girls'. The brats aren't even good heroes! Well, I won't stand it any longer! My name, is Princess Morbucks, and my plan is to destroy the Powerpuff Girls by beating them at their own game becoming Townsville's NEW superhero! But it's hard work, with conspiracies, fatal slumber parties, and well dressed supervillains. I have a lot to learn!'_**

 **So yeah, as you can tell from this, Princess is the main character here. For those who don't remember the show well, Princess was one of the villains in the series. She's a horrifyingly spoilt brat who at first wanted to become a Powerpuff Girl for the attention, but the Girls didn't let her because she wasn't experienced in crime fighting. She Iron Mans it and makes a super suit, vowing to destroy the Powerpuff Girls if she couldn't be one, although she never quite gets over not becoming a Powerpuff. She's... a surprisingly complex character when you examine her. My story is set like six years after so she's now eleven or twelve. She's _so much fun_ to write, if only for how hard it is to strike this balance between genuinely horrible, likeable, and just misunderstood. So yeah, check it out, tell me what you think. Not a fan of Powerpuff Girls? No problem. It reads more like _this_ than Powerpuff Girls, so you'll probably be fine.**

 **There's still lots of room for improvement, but that's what later chapters are for! {looks up at my 300+ word Author Note and cringes}**

 **Have a great weekend! {Goes back and erases half of Author Note to acceptable levels}**


	18. THAT AWKWARD FAMILY DINNER

**I'll try keep this brief because I don't have too much to say here.**

 **Thanks to marhvel for favouriting this! I normally check out the stories and stuff of the people who follow or review but honestly, I kinda forgot this time... Whoops... I do know he's ggot a Supernatural story though! Also, thank you firefluff for following, along with your very enthusiastic review! If you haven't already checked it out, Fluff has recently written a story called** Erlkönig **and even though its only got one chapter so far, I can tell its gonna be really good! Well written, fast paced, a little bit of humour, the works! So, check it out! Anyway, on to the show!**

 **CHAPTER 18: THAT AWKWARD FAMILY DINNER…. (Zodiac's thoughts)**

The landing sucked.

Maybe it was because I was panicked. Maybe it was because we'd jumped out of an unreasonably high building and were going to die if I didn't do something.

Maybe it was because I didn't have a good destination in my head when I was teleporting. So I shut my eyes and relied on my instincts, envisioning a location, _any_ location in the few seconds I had.

The result? A mouthful of dirt.

I crashed into the ground, losing my grip on the others as I tumbled through the mud and grass. I rolled to a stop, looking up at the sky dotted with tiny glowing pinpricked stars. My muscles hurt and my knees and arms burned. The soft grass covered my body, and I could feel insects crawling on my limbs.

I stayed completely still, just focussing on breathing. The longer I stayed still, the more I realised that something was _very_ wrong. My stomach felt like it was twisting up in knots, and my body felt anaemic. I tried to prop myself up on weak muscles, tilting my face to the side as I retched.

"Great," I coughed, wiping my mouth. "I have no idea where we are."

"How do you not know?" Ludmila asked. I sat up straight and looked ahead. Ludmila and Biko were in a heap, trying to untangle themselves and get up. Ludmila straightened up her hat, dusting it off and placing it back on her head, while Biko propped himself up on a golden spear.

That spear…. It was crafted almost entirely of Imperial Gold, so it was glowing in the middle of the night. Its blade was pointing up at the sky and over two feet long, shaped like an upside down T that had been sharpened and reshaped into a pyramid, like an arrow tip. The shaft was gold laced with ivory all around it, and was something like four feet long so the whole weapon was longer than Biko was tall.

"Yeah, don't you have to know where you're going?" Biko asked.

"Normally I do, but…." I stopped, covering my mouth with my hand. I turned aside, vomiting up all of my dinner on the floor until there was nothing left, and a bit more afterwards for good measure. I probably looked pathetic. I could see Ludmila turning away, and Biko cringing. He walked over to me, rubbing my back as if that would somehow help.

"What happened?" he asked.

"Jump fatigue," I croaked. "I overworked myself… I'm fine now."

"No, you're _not_ fine," Ludmila said. "You're turning green. I didn't even know you could _do_ that with your skin tone! We've got to find some kind of help."

She took out a flask of nectar from her backpack while Biko looked around for somewhere to take shelter.

We were in the middle of a large, slightly wet plain. We couldn't see too far in the middle of the night, but I could hear the sound of waves crashing against the beach in the distance. It sounded like it was half a mile away tops.

"Hey, that place looks inviting," Biko said, pointing towards the distance. I was still doubled over puking my guts out so I couldn't see, but Ludmila seemed to agree.

"It's our best bet. We can at least stay for a few hours until Zodiac recovers."

I looked up, practically fighting against my body that felt like collapsing within itself. I felt my already toxic blood draining out of me at the site of it.

It was a convenience store placed conveniently in the distance. The place looked pretty shabby, but it also looked comfy somehow. Maybe it was the potted plants hanging by the door and placed on the windowsills. Maybe it was the colourful artsy way the wooden door was painted. There was a rough trodden path in front of the store that ran off away from us and to the distance, maybe towards a road or some hint of civilisation.

To any other dying demigod, it would definitely be a better option than letting your own body murder you. But I knew where we were, and I also knew why I ended up teleporting here of all places, in the middle of nowhere. No matter what happened, I _definitely_ didn't want to go in there.

I tried to speak, but it just came out as drunken babbling, like my tongue was made of thick cow leather instead of flesh. I shook my head instead, but Ludmila wouldn't have it.

"What, you just wanna _die_ instead? I don't think so." She held the flask up to my mouth, slowly pouring some down my parched throat. Everybody said that nectar tasted of such amazing things. Chocolate chip cookies dunked in milk, freshly made liquid barbecue, Oreos dipped in peanut butter (I gagged at the thought), but I never tasted any of that. It was more like I was drinking melted cardboard. I have no idea why, that's just what it does.

My two comrades picked me up off the ground, looping my arms around their necks.

"C'mon, just gotta make it past this stretch," Biko said. "You can do it."

I wanted to tell him to shut up and drop me, and maybe order him to drop and give me twenty just for good measure, but my brain felt like it was full of cotton wool. Even with the nectar, it felt like I was only getting worse. I would like to think I struggled against them a bit, but if I did, they clearly didn't feel it.

We arrived at the front door. There was a hand-painted sign over the door, but I was pretty sure I'd barely be able to read it normally, let alone with the way I felt. I could still clearly make out one word though: RAINBOW.

We entered the store, and suddenly all the lights turned on, accompanied by some kind of weird flute music. Everything I looked at was weirder than the last.

Instead of seeing random snacks, some drinks, toiletries and a dwindling supply of Doritos, the products lining the aisles were baskets of apples and nuts and random dried fruit, clothing racks filled with macabre handmade outfits, including shirts that looked as colourful as the one Biko had when he first came to camp. When I looked up, wind chimes covered the ceiling, gently tinkling as the breeze from the open door caught them.

The aisles and ceiling were the most normal items in the store. The walls were rimmed with odd multicultural books and strange accessories. I think I saw a dream catcher in one part of the room, and hanging around it was a necklace in the shape of a pentagram.

Whatever incense the store owners were using, they had to stop using it, immediately. It smelled like somebody was burning Christmas decorations.

"C'n I help you?" a voice asked. I looked towards the end of the aisle, just by the pomegranates.

A girls was standing there, wearing cargo shorts, laced up hiking boots, and a yellow t-shirt that read R.O.F.L, the first letters of the words on the sign outside. My first thought was that she was really weird. Short, muscular, and with an interesting face. Her hair was also electric white and super frizzy, sticking out all around her head like some kind of halo.

"Umm, h-hi, hey t-there," Biko stuttered uselessly. "We were just… well, umm… we kind of…." Ludmila rolled her eyes, getting tired of his spontaneous amnesia when it came to speech.

"Our friend here is kind of in trouble," Ludmila took over. "We just need to find someplace to rest for the night, or until he feels better. We won't stay long, we promise, and we'll pay if we have to. Can you please help us?" The girl examined me, and I guess you could say I examined her back.

I kind of understood why Biko turned into a babbling fool. Her eyes were mesmerising, but I'm not sure if that was a good thing in this case. They kept changing colour from grey to black to white. Over and over, rotating like there was some kind of pinwheel behind them, changing their colour over and over and over… and over… and ove….

* * *

I don't know how many times I woke up and passed out again. I kept on hearing random snippets of conversation or seeing the scene change. I wasn't even sure about my surroundings. One time I woke up, I could hear Biko and Ludmila talking.

"… So, what can you do with it now?" Ludmila asked.

"I've been practicing, and I think I'm getting better at it, more experienced," Biko replied. _The heck are they talking about?_

"Well then, you better make sure to show me when you're done."

"We'll sneak out when nobody's watching. I'm not sure if it's really safe for anyone to see yet."

I opened my eyes with a groan. The two of them were sitting on the foot of my bed, talking animatedly.

"Ugh, get a room you two," I groaned.

"Wha?" They looked at me for a second, probably replaying their conversation in their heads before their eyes grew wide in horror, their faces an embarrassed red. "No! No, no, no," Ludmila protested.

"That's not what we were talking about!" Biko screeched, his voice an octave higher. "You're taking that out of context!"

"Yeah, whatever," I mumbled, my vision going black again as Ludmila stammered an excuse I didn't hear.

* * *

I woke up in a bed I didn't recognise. There was a ceiling fan above my head, wobbling a little as it spun like it was going to drop on top of me. To my right on a bedside table was a glass of water with some Asian characters printed on it, warping as it wrapped around the glass. I raised my head a little so I could look around.

I was in a pretty small room. There wasn't that much in it, just the bed I was sleeping in, the bedside table, a chair and small table next to my bed, and a chest of drawers to my left. There was probably a window behind me because shafts of bright morning light were shining on a spot on my blankets. The door was right in front of me, and it just so happened to be opening at that time. The girl from before entered, her hair tied up in two giant frizzy pigtails or buns or whatever they were. They resembled clouds more than hair really.

She was holding a tray with a beautiful teacup and rice balls. She stopped in the doorway when she noticed that I'd woken up, then smiled, dazzling electric blue sparks seemingly lighting up in her eyes.

Was I still delusional or something?

"You're awake!" she said, heading towards me. She placed the food on the table and sat down on the chair in front of it. "How are you feeling?"

"Like roadkill," I said as I propped myself up so I was half sitting. My stomach felt like it was trying to eat itself, but it wasn't as bad as… whenever it was that I crash landed. I could move, but my muscles felt pretty lethargic, like I'd been in bed for a long time. "Where am I?"

"You're in the guest room of _Rainbow Organic Foods and Lifestyles_. I guess you could say it's the store's attic."

Rainbow Organic Foods…. That meant that this was definitely the place I was thinking of. Looking at the girl in front of me, I probably would have cracked a joke. At least something to try and destroy the first impression of me as this passed out, drunk looking guy at least, but I wasn't really thinking of that at the time.

"Is the owner around?" I asked.

"Yeah, she's just downstairs at the counter, talking with your friends."

"Can you please take me to see her?"

"No can do. You're a wreck. It's a wonder you're even conscious right now. The only thing you should be doing now is getting rest." I forced myself slowly out of bed, trying to ignore my aching muscles. She placed her hand on my chest, gently pushing me back to the bed, shaking her head.

"I have to go see her. Please." Wow. How I had fallen from grace. Me, the great Zodiac, the invisible man, the phantom thief, reduced to pleading with this strange woman. I looked up at her, tapping as deep into my power as I could. If I had to, I could just teleport downstairs. I knew this building, so I was sure I could do it. But I knew that in reality, I couldn't even warp two centimetres without blacking out. Either way, it had the effect I was looking for. The girl hesitated, surprise on her face.

"You've met her before, haven't you?" I nodded my head. She bit her lip, then finally let go of me. "Fine. But eat first, and you have to let me escort you there."

"Thank you." After eating the rice ball painfully slowly (even though I was starving, my appetite just didn't exist) and finishing the green tea, I stood up, leaning one hand on her for support as I slowly headed for the doors.

The journey took much longer than it should have, and by the time I reached the bottom floor I was out of breath.

Biko had swapped out of his orange camp t-shirt and back into his psychedelic colours and was mopping up the floor at one side of the store. Ludmila was wearing a yellow t-shirt like the girl from before and was restocking the supplies. They looked like they'd been conscripted to fight in the never-ending battle for an organised store. I was planning on sneaking quietly past them since they seemed so busy, but Biko noticed me almost instantly.

"Zodiac! You're better!" he yelled. Oh my gods, I just didn't have the energy to deal with him.

"Nice to see you too, Biko," I replied. Biko looked elated, but Ludmila looked a little more worried. I guess the exhaustion was still pretty obvious. Still, she didn't say anything as we walked towards the counter.

Just behind it was a middle-aged woman with olive skin, shoulder length black hair, rimless glasses and a yellow t-shirt written 'The Goddess Is Alive!' She was wearing a whole bunch of assorted rings and necklaces and was wearing some kind of rosy perfume, unless that was just another incense. Just looking at this sweet old lady pissed me off.

"Why, hello there dear," she said. "I see you're feeling better."

"No thanks to your bootleg herbal tea," I mumbled, glaring at her the whole time. The girl by my side looked at me in shock, but I didn't care. If I actually did recover, I didn't want her to think it was thanks to _her_.

"Ah, I suppose you didn't like the green tea, did you? Well, you were never fond of it."

"I'll take a mug full of coffee any day over that crackpot concoction." She shrugged her shoulders.

"To each their own. So, I heard you're on a quest. And one issued by Athena herself. Getting big in the world?"

"I'm doing more than you, that's for sure."

"Somebody's got an ego. It's gonna hurt when you fall from that pedestal you're putting yourself on."

"Uh…." The girl was looking between the two of us nervously. "Hey, is everything okay?" she asked.

"Yeah, it's all good," I said, not taking my eyes off the woman for a second.

"Fleecy, go help our guests restocking," the woman said. It barely even registered that the girl had a name as ridiculous as 'Fleecy'. "This is a family matter." Now Biko and Ludmila had also gotten curious, and at that last sentence Biko's eyes looked like they were going to pop out of his head.

"Family? Wait, that means…." Right now, they weren't important. I focussed solely on the woman.

"Wow, you're a little dramatic, don't you think, Iris?"

"You can't even address me like I'm your mother? Demigods these days… not that I want to act all high and mighty like the other gods."

"Wait, this is _the_ Iris, goddess of the rainbow?" Ludmila asked. Iris pulled a face, wrinkling up her nose.

"I don't really like to mix my life with my corporate identity. Yes, that's who I am officially, but you can skip all the goddess stuff. I prefer to run the R.O.F.L Co-op, an employee run cooperative-"

"Promoting healthy living and alternative lifestyles, bla, bla, bla," I said. "You claim that you're not lording over us like the other gods? Well, you're right. Instead, all you do is run away from your problems, hide out in your little retreat while everybody else goes straight to hell." I got the feeling that I was stepping over the line a bit here, but I didn't care. I didn't even _want_ to come back here. If I was gonna be here then I would make life difficult for everybody. Call me petty or juvenile, I don't care.

Iris's eyes lit up with all sorts of brilliant colours, the sound of thunder crackling outside accompanying it. I was wondering whether I would be blasted halfway across the country or turned into a lucky charm. Then, as suddenly as it started, her eyes returned to their warm brown and she smiled, only one corner of her mouth rising, as usual.

"Aren't you a little rebel? I see the Olympians haven't turned you into their lapdog just yet."

"I'd like to keep it that way too. Well, I guess you fixing me up was pretty useful, but we've gotta go." I turned around to leave, but I felt a hand grab me by the crook of my elbow.

"You just wait a second," she said. "Do you actually know how close you were to dying? Do you know how close you _still_ are to death? You jumped way beyond your limits, and with multiple people. I don't even know why you can _walk_. If you try another jump before you've healed, even _I_ don't know what will happen to you."

"I'm not gonna get killed by this 'gift' that you've given me, Iris. Unlike you, I'm a survivor."

"Curious, coming from one who spends his life scurrying around hiding, lying, stealing, and scavenging for what he needs in the name of 'survival'. At least I'm free to do what I want now. But what about you? Can you really say you've stopped running?"

"I guess it's in the blood." I tore my arm away from her grip, and she made no move to resist. She shut her eyes, taking a deep breath to calm herself.

"You don't listen when I try to help you. You complain when I don't. You run away when I try reach out to you, then come back when I ignore you. You just can't make up your mind, can you?"

"Sounds like the script to a really bad drama."

"Well, I can at least change a few lines. _Rest_. Let me help you. You know how it is, I could never be there for you when you needed me most, as a child. I _still_ can't really help you the way I want to. I can't finish the quest for you either. No playing favourites. But I _can_ make it a little bit easier. All you need to do is ask." Biko wasn't saying anything. Actually, I wasn't even sure how much he was following. But the way he looked at me, I could tell that he wanted me to accept the favour. Anything that could help us to _not_ die would help us. And yet….

"Sorry, but I'm not going to let you babysit me, Iris. There was something you once said, a long time ago…. 'No strings hold you?'"

"'… and no fate binds you,'" she finished.

"I'm not gonna be indebted to anyone or let people pull my strings—especially not you." Iris shut her eyes and took a deep breath. When she opened them again, I couldn't tell if she was resigned or proud of me.

"Fine. I _really_ don't want you to end up like… most demigods… and arguing about this is disturbing the atmosphere. But if you're so determined to do this without me, then the least I can do is give you information."

I wanted to reject that too, but you never turn down good info, especially if it just so happened to come from the master of all instant messages.

I shoved my hands in pockets, leaning against the counter.

"Okay then, what've you got?"

"If you're heading towards Nashville, then you're probably looking for another musical instrument. The only things there were King David's Kinnor, and Triton's Conch, and you're too late for both of them. While you were sleeping, somebody else already got to them. A bunch of mortals, effective ones and heavily armed. You're pretty intimate with them too."

"Mortals? Then that means… it's RIOT, isn't it?" Judging by Ludmila and Biko's faces, I was gonna have to explain this all to them at some point. Or at least, everything that was important.

"You can't fight them. You can't steal from them. You won't even be able to _meet_ them. Fighting them is suicide."

"Great. Of course, the easiest items to steal have to get knocked off the list."

"You've got other options though. There's something else you're looking for, I can tell. I don't know what it is, but it's the only reason you took this quest, right?"

"It doesn't matter. I can't get it right now anyway."

"Maybe not. Not alone at least. But you're smarter than that. More resourceful. You can get whatever you want, but you're staking your life on this. Your decisions might make you lose everything."

"What, so you're telling me to call in backup or something?" Iris gave me a look that told me that was _exactly_ what she expected me to do. "Great…. I didn't want to call in my favour so soon, but I guess I've got no choice…. Guys, we're leaving."

It would have looked so cool if I just shoved my hands back in my pockets and headed straight for the door like I didn't care. I would have spun around for a killer punchline just before walking out too. Sadly, I stumbled as soon as I took my first step. The girl from before had to catch me just before I could fall.

"Wait, Zodiac," Ludmila started, coming over and supporting me from the other side. "You can't even walk and yet you want to continue the quest?"

"Not really… I just want to get out of here. We might as well head to Nashville, maybe plan our next move then."

"And how are you gonna get there?"

"I dunno, teleport?"

"You couldn't do that when you were healthy! Are you trying to die?!"

"No, just prove a point." Ludmila rolled her eyes, then slapped me in the face.

I was _not_ expecting that. As if the stinging from a normal slap wasn't enough, she darn near took my head off with that blow, and my face felt like it had just been sunburnt. I clutched my face, gritting my teeth and trying not to cry like a baby.

"Ow! The heck was that for?!"

"It was for being stupid! You're the only one who's got _any_ experience, and you're going to leave us to finish the quest on our own?"

"Oh relax, I won't die. And you'll be fine anyway-" She slapped me again, _harder_. I'm amazed I didn't pass out from the blow. Honestly, was everyone just going to watch this abuse?

"No we won't! That's why we're on this stupid quest with you in the first place! Go back to your room, right now! You will lie down and you will get better! The next time you try and risk your health like that, dying will be the _least_ of your worries!"

"Wha…." The fire in her eyes was seriously freaking me out. As in, _literally_. There were little tiny flames dancing in her pupils, and her whole body was glowing. I was pretty sure her next hit would be a punch instead of a slap, and it would probably send me flying like a rocket, flames and all.

Iris looked pretty impressed, nodding her head in approval. The girl—Fleecy—was covering her mouth, trying not to laugh, and Biko looked star struck, as usual. I shrugged my shoulders in resignation. This was not a fight I was gonna win.

"You do you I guess. Just let me give somebody an Iris message and I'll be out like a light." Ludmila seemed to accept that.

"Fleecy, take care of that for me," Iris said. Fleecy smiled, leading me upstairs again as the others followed.

"Your name is _Fleecy_?" Biko asked incredulously, only just realising that now. I guess he was distracted by other things last time.

"Uh-huh. Well, at least that's what everybody calls me." Taking a look at her absurd hair colour and texture, I wasn't surprised.

We arrived upstairs and entered the bathroom at the end of the small corridor, just ahead of the guest room I'd been passed out in just moments ago. After running the bathtub until the room started steaming, I pulled out a golden drachma. I was just about to toss it in when Fleecy shook her head.

"Don't bother with the usual incantation," she said. "Iris left it up to me, so you've got to use my direct contact."

"Umm… okay? So what do I say?" she cleared her throat, like she'd been waiting for this moment.

" _O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me,_ and then whoever you want to see."

"You can't be serious…."

"Do you wanna get into contact with this guy or not?" I sucked up my pride and flipped the coin into it.

"Um, O Fleecy-"

"Say it with meaning!"

"… _O Fleecy, do me a solid. Show me Zach at Camp Half-Blood!_ " The air shimmered, a little rainbow rimmed window appearing in the air. On the other side of it was a dark forest, trees stretching their bony branches across the night sky, blotting out the stars. Standing in the middle of that forest was Zach, scratching his head with one hand and holding a shoebox in the other. He looked pretty lost. "Hey there compadre."

Zach wheeled around in shock, turning so he was now face to face with the Iris message, one hand heading to his pocket as if to reach something. He relaxed and walked closer to it.

"Oh, Zodiac. What's up?"

"You know how you said that you would help me nab any magical item I wanted? Well, I kinda need to call in that favour."

"Wait, _now_? When we're in different time zones? I'm not really sure I can help you personally…."

"That's fine, totally fine. I just need information. Have you read Genesis chapter nine, verse thirteen?"

"Have I… _what_? Is this _really_ the best time to be giving me a Sunday school pop quiz?" His expression looked so baffled that I would have stopped to laugh at him, but this was too important for me to waste time.

"Just answer the question."

"No, is it important?"

"Incredibly! Okay, according to Judeo-Christian lore, a long time ago, like, _real_ long time ago, 'the-powers-that-be' became fed up with humanity and all of our sins, and decided to wipe us off the face of the planet. So, according to them, God told the last faithful man on the planet, Noah, about his plans, and instructed him to build an ark, a giant ship, and take two of every animal on earth and stuff them on his ark along with his family. Flood hits, the end of the world strikes, and Noah waits it out. Once it's safe, he finally returns to land, and God promises that he won't wipe out humanity using a massive flood again, no matter what. Common knowledge, right?"

"Okay…."

"Now, a lot of Biblical stories and events come down to faith at the end of the day, but this particular one is a little bit different. There are _thousands_ of flood stories across all the different pantheons, myths and religions all over the world. The Ogygian floods that stripped the world barren in Greek myth, the world ending flood Vishnu warned Manu about in the Matsya Purana."

"And Gilgamesh meeting one of the survivors of the flood in The Epic of Gilgamesh," Biko interrupted. "Or the waves released by Olokun in Nigerian traditional stories."

"Your point, get to it," Zach said impatiently.

"Well, all of these myths telling the same story can't be a coincidence," I continued, "and being affiliated with Greek myth, the Ogygian floods practically confirm this. At some point, this event actually happened. Sometimes facts and figures change, but the general vibe is the same. There's anywhere between two and seven survivors, surviving on some kind of boat with a huge number of supplies while the storm rages on. So if that story is real, then what about the Covenant in Genesis?"

"I'm not following man, I don't exactly keep up with my Bible reading…."

"In the Bible, when Noah steps foot on dry land again and God promises not to drown them again, he sees a rainbow in the skies. God says 'I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth'. I get the feeling it's like Väin's kantele, and we can take that rainbow and use it for ourselves."

"Zodiac, you're not going to pummel the forces of darkness with a rainbow…."

"Not just a rainbow! God's Rain Bow! It's an actual bow—a weapon—meant to be strung and fire arrows. Zach, this isn't the small stuff we've been seeing before. This is _actually an apocalyptic weapon_! If this thing is as real as the kantele, then in the wrong hands it can make the monsoons look like an overflowing bathtub! I _have_ to get that weapon no matter what!"

"Okay…. Assuming that it's real, I still don't know how to help you…."

"You're a demon and magical item expert. With the info I just gave you, can you track it down?" Zach was silent for a bit, frown lines digging into his forehead as he just stood there and thought. Finally, his answer:

"I don't need to. You can't 'find' it. If it does have a physical form then I know nothing about it. However, being spirit based and conceived during a covenant, or a declaration, you _can_ summon it. I'll have to come back to you when I've figured out all the specifics, but as long as you're in The States there's only one place that you can possibly go where it might work. So my question to you is, are you feeling patriotic?" What he was saying slowly began to dawn on me.

"I'll get back to you when I get there," I said. "You've helped your fellow citizen today. You deserve a medal." Zach scoffed.

"You? A citizen? Please. Hey, wait Zodiac I need-" I'd already waved my hand through the image when he started speaking. It sounded pretty frantic, but I'd already dissolved the image. Oops. Well, whatever it was, Zach could probably handle it.

I turned around to find that everybody was staring at me in confusion.

"Are you feeling patriotic?" Ludmila asked.

"Time for a history lesson. Where was the Declaration of Independence signed?" For once, Biko looked clueless, like he'd just chosen to fall asleep in that class. Ludmila looked up at the ceiling, like the answer was somehow written there.

"Umm… Independence Hall, Philadelphia?"

"Good. The place where an arguably world changing declaration was signed. That's the _only_ place in the country where we can spawn an object forged as a world changing promise. That's the last piece of the puzzle we need to complete our quest. So, who's up for a road trip?"


	19. SILENT LIGHT, HOLY MIGHT

**I only have one thing to say this time. WiseGirlGeek, your PMs weren't working last I checked, right? Well, I'm not sure if that's been fixed yet, but _just in case_ , I don't feel like breaking my 'reply to everything' policy so I'll type a (very) shortened version of my reply! So...**

 **WiseGirlGeek: Thank you so very much! I actually _do_ wanna be an author, so seeing any of that validation is awesome! And I don't exactly feel like waiting for eternity for it to 'one day*' happen when I'm good enough, so I do sometimes work on my own non fanfiction stuff. Why I'm not an author yet (apart from it being _really_ hard) is because up until now though, everything I tried writing was either terrible or I could never focus enough to finish them and go back and edit. I came close last year with this cool story I was writing though, with cyborgs, fist fighting fortresses, and a homicidal imaginary friend! But I never really... I dunno, I never fell in love with the story I guess. I've only _just_ recently developed my 'writing style' and learnt what I wanna write after this story so I'm gonna try write a publishable book again starting this April so I can actually plan it properly, and I'll _stick with it until I have a terrible first draft that I'm proud of!_ Then I'll go back and edit it again... and again... and again... and again until I have something beautiful. So who knows? Maybe one day, you'll have a book on your shelf with my name on it! (err, my _actual_ name, not this pen name) So wish me luck!**

 **Oh, and PS: I love incorporating the canon wherever I can! That, and I really wanted to describe a Cloud Nymph. I dunno why that interested me so much, but it did.**

 **Oh yeah, I've got a story to write. Whoops.**

 _ ***'one day' is read as 'never'**_

 **CHAPTER 19: SILENT LIGHT, HOLY MIGHT/ WE ALL QUAKE AT THE SIGHT (Biko's journal)**

With restocked provisions, healed wounds, and full stomachs (courtesy of Iris), we were just about ready to go. We'd spent three days at the R.O.T.F.L, a lot more than we would have liked. Iris said that we were in a safe zone, so for the first time since I'd arrived at Camp, I could actually get a full night's rest. We would have left earlier, but ambrosia didn't seem to speed up Zodiac's recovery a lot. Honestly, it was really freaking me out. He said that he couldn't move such massive distances before, and he could only go to places he knew. He must have remembered this place and warped us here, although how he survived the jump was beyond me.

Either way, he was looking a lot better now, even if his attitude was as grouchy as ever around his Mom. He was lying down on the grass just outside the store, looking up at the clouds while I was sat cross legged by a tree, snacking on some apples that Iris had packed for us in a basket. Ludmila was practicing with her poi, spinning them around herself in slow, measured circles—without the fire.

This was probably the last moment of peace we would get.

Honestly, I didn't feel up for the quest. I was starting to get used to hanging around the store and helping Iris out, being a fellow ROFLcopter (the title would take some getting used to). Iris's house was just out back and there were a couple of beds there we could use. Being a goddess, even a minor one, she didn't really need to use it much. The food was good too, when you weren't questioning what the heck it was. But we couldn't stay forever. We still had a job to do, and people were counting on us. There's no rest for the wicked apparently.

"So, are we ready?" Zodiac asked, still looking straight up.

"As ready as we'll ever get," Ludmila replied, also not looking, and with the enthusiasm of a corpse. Wow. Teammates were meant to have bonds of steel, but right then, they felt more like elastic bands. I had to do _something_ to lighten the atmosphere!

"Alright! We've all gotten loads stronger since we started! All our enemies will tremble before us!" This was a moment for song! And my angelic (not really) voice was perfect for the job! "We must be swift as a coursing river! With all the force of a great typhoon! All the strength of a raging fire! Mysterious as the dark side of _the moon!_ "

"Alright sensei Li Shang, I think we get the idea," Ludmila giggled. Zodiac sat up, frowning as he looked at the two of us.

"What exactly happened?" he asked.

"What do you mean?"

"When I was knocked out, I remember hearing you having a very incriminating conversation…. I'd hate it if you two were having fun without me." I stared at him aghast, remembering the convo he was talking about. Ludmila's face was burning, and apparently, so was the grass around her feet.

"No! It's not what you're thinking!" She squeaked, stamping out the tiny bushfire she'd started desperately.

"Yeah! You're taking that out of context!"

"Oh really? Then what _were_ you talking about?" Ludmila and I looked at each other, a silent conversation exchanged between us in a millisecond.

 _You're ready. Show him._

I could feel the cool imperial gold of the lance around my neck, an ornately designed rosary hanging like a weight under my protection. If there was ever a time to see if I could control it, it would be now. I clutched it with my right hand, feeling the metal pulse beneath my palm as if it were alive with a beating heart of its own. I tore it off. In the blink of an eye, the trinket warped in my hands, elongating into a golden spear, blinding light shining off of it. I held it in both hands, the tip pointed up.

Zodiac whistled as he admired the weapon, getting up and walking towards me to get a closer look.

"I couldn't really get a good look before, but this is a pretty sweet weapon," he said. "It should just be an ordinary Roman heavy pilum, but it's been pretty well decorated. The wooden block has been replaced with a sturdier gold cross guard. It's a little less protective, but it's impossibly strong for the same weight. The fact that even the inlaid ivory is still in perfect shape after two thousand years shows how much love and skill the guy who forged it put into making this thing."

"That's nothing. Check this out." I stepped a safe distance away from him and flexed my knees, getting into a fighting stance. I didn't know the first thing about fighting with a lance, but after some practice with Ludmila, I was starting to get it. I held it just above my waist so the tip was always facing ahead of me, rising slightly so anybody trying to get in range would get run through in the sternum. I imagined that I looked a little bit like _Soul Calibur's_ Kilikbut I probably looked a lot sillier than that.

I tried a few practice jabs at first, stabbing the air, and occasionally sweeping and swinging it around me. I could picture my enemies surrounding me now. I spun on my heel, sweeping it at my shadow's legs before rapping the weapon upside someone's imaginary head. I held my hands closer together and swung it behind me. If anybody was standing there, the blade would have decapitated them. I widened my grip again, thrusting it into my imaginary opponent's gut, just for good measure.

"So _this_ is what you were talking about was so unsafe?" Zodiac asked, a sceptical eyebrow raised to the top of his forehead."

"Patience, young grasshopper. I'm just about to get to the best part." I could use it without the weapon turning back into a necklace. That was good. I turned my attention to a rock the size of my chest in front of me. I held the weapon so that the tip of the spear was facing the ground and angled slightly behind me. I felt a tugging at the pit of my stomach, as if somebody was trying to pull out my soul with a monkey wrench. I latched onto that feeling, and tugged. As if it was my old sword, I swung the lance upwards.

The rock flew into the air within a tiny green vortex, torn clumps of dirt and shredded grass rising along with it. I slapped my lance to the left, the vortex violently following it, chewing up the ground beneath it. I slammed my lance down, the tornado disappearing and dropping the rock into the soil. I could see the rock's once smooth surface had been completely defaced, shallow cuts and gashes in the rock's surface. Entire chunks of it had been torn off.

"So, whaddya think?" I lowered my weapon, tuning to face Zodiac. He was staring at me as if I'd just fallen from the stratosphere. "I know, pretty cool, huh?"

"He couldn't show his power to anyone before because last time he nearly tore off my arms," Ludmila added, "so while you were sleeping, we were practicing, trying to help him figure out how to use it."

"So we had to wait until we were sure I wouldn't kill myself before we showed everybody. Hey, dude, say something already. You're creeping me out…."

"What _are_ you?"

"I thought we've gone over this. Demigod who's Mom seems to hate him, etcetera, etcetera-"

"No, no, don't give me that. There's no _way_ you're an Athena kid! What _was_ that, a tornado? Athena kids can't do that!"

I frowned as he said it. I'd been doing some thinking about it too. The Athena campers were _sure_ that they never got any special powers, ever. But then again, the Hephaestus cabin was the same until this one demigod some time ago who was a human flamethrower. That, and I was certain that I'd felt _something_ from Athena. Something vaguely familiar…. Did I even _want_ to be her kid though? But if I wasn't, then who _was_ I?

"I dunno, Athena's also the goddess of war, right?" I said, trying to rationalise it. "Maybe I've got the storms of war or something?" Zodiac shook his head, but if he was gonna say anything else, he never got the chance. Iris and Fleecy came out of the store. Iris was holding an envelope in her hands, and Fleecy was wearing an oversized backpack, probably stuffed full of curse talismans and a dream catcher.

"It's about time that you carried on your journey," Iris said. "You said you needed to get to Philadelphia, correct?"

"Yeah, or something like that," Zodiac mumbled, his expression souring. For somebody who always seemed to be making snarky remarks and taking nothing seriously, he became surprisingly humble around Iris. I was still wondering what the history between the two of them was when she handed him the envelope.

"There's a delivery guy who brings us all of our supplies, sends products that people have ordered, that kind of thing. He's a pretty close associate of us, an ex-member of the legion. Take this note to him. It's a short letter of introduction explaining the circumstances. He'll get you to Philadelphia."

"So the goddess pays for our cab. Wow, I'm feeling the love now."

"You know how it is. A goddess can't help a mortal, but I can still get other mortals to help you, and I can pack your lunch before you go. Just keep walking about a mile west and you'll find a tiny airstrip. The pilot should be there by the time you arrive."

It looked like the show was over. With a little bit of dread, I clutched my lance tightly to my chest. In a flash of light, it transformed back into a rosary around my neck. Just as Zodiac was getting up and adjusting his own bag, Iris held up her hand. "Wait, before you go, there is one more thing we can do for you."

Fleecy had the air of nervous excitement around her when Iris gripped her hand, squeezing it tightly before sending her in our direction.

"I'll be tagging along too!" she said. "At least, until you get to Philadelphia."

"Huh? But don't you, I dunno, _work_ here?" I asked.

"Oh relax, it will be fine! The staff rotates here anyway!"

"Any help is fine by me," Zodiac said. "It's all we can expect from her anyway." I was surprised that Zodiac was fine with this. Having four demigods in one place was a bit like slapping neon 'kick me' signs to our butts. Ludmila also looked a little worried, but we followed him anyway before he could get ahead of us.

The journey was surprisingly peaceful actually. There were no spontaneous monster attacks or exploding hotel rooms. An amusement ride from hell didn't suddenly rise up from the ground. The shadows didn't move and the flowers didn't whisper. After a while, we could even _talk_ without fearing for our lives. If we ignored the inexplicable fog that seemed to engulf the plains, it almost felt like we were just ordinary hikers, with Fleecy as our overladen guide.

I really wanted to ask Zodiac what the deal was between him and his Mom, but he still looked like he wanted to punch something so I left him alone. Instead, I just stayed silent while Ludmila turned her attention to Fleecy.

"So, um, Fleecy, isn't this a bad idea? The more demigods are in the same place, the more dangerous it is, right? So, why are you also with us?"

"Oh that's easy. Because I'm not a demigod."

"Oh, I see…. Wait, really? So you're mortal?"

"Nope! I'm a nebulae!"

"A… a nebulae." She nodded her head with a sunlight bright smile on her face, her hair shaking as she did so.

"Yup, a cloud nymph. In fact, Fleecy is just a nickname. In our own language, my name is—" Somehow, some way, with vocal chords that made no biological sense, she made a bunch of crackling and blowing noises that sounded like a dissipating thunderstorm, getting replaced by a cool breeze. It was… the strangest sound I had ever heard coming from a human mouth.

"I'll just stick with Fleecy," Ludmila said nervously. "So, when monsters think they've found us, they just end up smelling nebulae?"

"Sort of. I can also 'spread' myself and mask your scents. That's where all the fog is coming from." It took me a second to realise the implications of that statement.

"Oh my gods…. We're _breathing Fleecy_ …." The walk suddenly didn't feel so normal anymore.

"L-looks like we're here," Ludmila squeaked, trying her best to pretend I'd never said anything.

We were standing at the end of a long, grassy clearing, with a wide strip of perfectly trimmed and flattened grass right in the middle. At the end of the clearing was a hanger, probably complete with a tiny plane sitting inside it. Zodiac grinned as he picked up the pace heading towards it.

"Shotgun, called it!"

* * *

Demigod dreams suck.

I think, almost without exception, every dream I've ever had has been extraordinarily weird, and a little too crazy for my mind to even _try_ to remember, but it ramped up to a whole new level once I realised that I was a child of the gods.

I was standing in the middle of some kind of weird looking temple. Everything was made of pristine white marble, with burning braziers all around me. I guessed that I was probably in a throne room, but instead of a big, absurdly decorated seat at the end, there was a giant slab of decorated marble in its place. It was as tall as a double decker bus, and as wide as a garage door. Some kind of writing was scratched into it, but they were all in different languages. Some were hieroglyphs, others were Greek symbols. One section was even written in Japanese katagana (or at least I _think_ it was katagana). There were loads of pieces missing, like somebody had been taking a sledgehammer to them.

Standing next to it with his hands in his pockets was my old buddy, Jordan Flair.

"Our power has grown immensely in the past few weeks," he said. "You managed to escape from Hades last time, but it looks like we've been discovered again by the gods. Regardless, it's already too late. No mortals can harm us now, and the gods are obliged to never directly interfere. They were too slow and too late. Nothing can stop us!"

"That complacency will be what gets you killed." I heard the voice all around me, deep and condensed, like gravity in sound form. "We cannot underestimate the creatures that roam this modern age. Just look at what happened to yourself. You lost The Holy Spear to children! If you weren't still useful, this less-than-perfect display would be inexcusable."

"I apologise, but there are hundreds of alternatives that we can use. Still, I'll make sure to retrieve it at our soonest convenience."

"Hmm…. It looks like we'll be able to retrieve two ancient relics in one go then." All of the letters on the tablet scrambled, shifting like spiders on a wall and rearranging themselves until they looked like a pair of etched artistic Egyptian eyes, a little like the Eye of Horus Dad told me about. The worst part was, they were looking right at _me_. "Child of the old gods, you're wading in deep waters. Begone from my sight!"

What must have been a ten million gigawatt lightbulb lit up from within the tablet, the light growing brighter with each passing moment, burning through my like a blowtorch. I closed my eyes, holding up my hands to protect myself until the light started to calm down. Slowly, I opened my eyes, just to see the scene had shifted.

I was back at Camp Half-Blood, standing in the middle of all the cabins. Everything was in sepia tones, and it was like somebody pressed the mute button, because I couldn't hear a thing. In the middle of it all was Zach, pointing a revolver at somebody who looked remarkably like myself. A crowd had gathered around them. It looked like they were shouting, but I had no idea what they were saying. I definitely heard the sound of a gunshot though. My doppelganger staggered backwards. His face was away from me, but I was sure that it was wide with shock and horror. He collapsed onto his knees, then fell flat on the ground. Then chaos broke out.

Monsters streamed in from all angles. From the shadows, under the ground, swooping in from the skies, everywhere. The ground roared and groaned, tectonics shifting and upheaving it beneath our feet. It was like the ground was getting shoved through an intergalactic cheese grater. I probably screamed as the ground disappeared and was replaced by an endless void. I wouldn't know though. I couldn't hear my voice as I fell through it. I _did_ hear other people screaming, and a lot too. It actually sounded a like….

* * *

… My friends. I was officially never going to sleep on another plane again. We were originally just crashing out on the passenger seats in the back, minding our own business, dreaming demigod dreams. It wasn't too big or comfy, but it worked. But now? We were crashing, this time _literally_.

The front of the plane was gone, like somebody had sawed it in half. Where the pilot, or the whole cockpit had went was not something I wanted to think about. Fire and burning fuel was spilling everywhere, igniting everything that it touched. It was still night outside from the few glimpses I could catch as we spiralled out of control. The seats were getting torn out of the plane like they were nothing more than paperweights, and we would be next.

"Grab on!" Zodiac roared, gripping my shoulder with one hand. I couldn't see Ludmila or Fleecy. I just had to hope he had them with his other arm. In a flash of light, the world changed. We were no longer in a burning half-a-plane from some unknown height. We were now outside, and about to crash into a noodle stand.

We slammed into it with the sound of splintering wood and spilt ramen, rolling over as we came to a very bruised and broken stop. On the plus side: all four of us were there and alive. On the downside: _everything hurt_. Oh yeah, and there was the sound of an exploding plane in the distance, like it had slammed into a skyscraper. We were in that just a second ago.

Apparently, there wasn't even time to be glad we were still alive. Zodiac pulled me up off the floor. Still sitting in the shambles of the stall, perfectly untouched amongst the ruins was its owner, a young guy with a ginger moustache, holding a bottle of salt and completely speechless as he examined the destruction. He was probably about to pack up and go until we made his job a thousand times harder. I would have apologised if I hadn't seen the loping strides of our old friends.

"Hellhounds!" I cried. Ludmila beat me to the punch, turning on her heel and running in the opposite direction, closely followed by Fleecy who kind of 'broke' into a thundercloud and flew after her. Zodiac must have teleported because I didn't even see him move. I followed suit, turning and legging it.

"Head to the light," Fleecy crackled as a streetlight came into view. We sprinted for it and ground to a stop, drawing our weapons with the spark of celestial bronze and imperial gold. Fleecy recollected herself and held up her fists. The three of us stood back to back as hellhounds leaped for our throats.

Using the lance was easier when I was practicing than it was in reality. It was slow and heavy, nothing like my old short sword, and more than once a stray hellhound leaped past its range and almost flattened me before it would inexplicably burst into dust. Zodiac must have been nearby, sniping them out, but it would be a lot more comforting if we could see him.

That said, Fleecy was a more reliable replacement. Anything that even got _close_ to her was punched to dust, accompanied by a bright blue flash like lightning was in her fists.

"Over here!" I heard him yell. My neck snapped to the left around the corner, following his voice. He was standing by another light, taking pot shots at all the monsters he could see. He pointed towards a massive building behind him, probably the town hall. "That way!"

We abandoned our post (our very literal street post) and followed him as he began sprinting towards it. Every couple of feet I would have to slash my lance sideways and disembowel any hellhounds that got too close.

We reached the door and forced it open, scrambling in and barring it shut behind us. Apparently, the hellhounds were gracious enough to knock. Unfortunately, they used their claws to do it, piercing the door with their entire paws.

Surprisingly, there was nobody in the building. Besides a front desk, there were stacks of books lining the walls, and a bunch of tables in the middle. It looked like an eighteenth century conference room.

"Welcome to Independence Hall my peeps," Zodiac said. "Now I've just gotta perform the ritual. Keep this place covered." He teleported out of sight, leaving us to keep the door blocked as the monsters slammed against the door.

"I'll help him out!" Fleecy yelled, turning into a cloud and dispersing all over the hall. Now it was just Ludmila and I versus a dog pound from hell.

"This is ridiculous," Ludmila asked. "We can't hold them forever!"

"Yeah, well, between fighting them outside where they can spawn from _darkness_ , I'll take the well-lit hall any day if we have to fight them." Suddenly, it felt like the thermostat was being possessed by a demon, because the temperature went _way_ up.

In just a few seconds, I collapsed to my knees, feeling like I was sweating out my flesh. Ludmila didn't seem too affected though. She crouched down next to me, calling my name and trying to wake me up, but already her face was starting to fade away. Actually, it was more like it was getting _brighter_. Like, somebody turned the contrast on a TV way up. And was there always a giant halo above us?

Ludmila seemed to notice it, looking above her in horror. She grabbed me and pulled us both out of the way. A second later, I heard a thunderous boom, like a lightning bolt had struck where we were just a second ago. It looked a bit like that too, except it was bright yellow instead of blue, and as thick as an oak tree.

It blasted us across the floor until we slammed into a bookcase. I was actually kind of grateful. The air wasn't as sweltering there as it was over by the charred remains of the door.

Oh. The door. Son of a hellhound.

I got to my feet and thrust my lance forward, stabbing a hellhound right through the eye, the beast disappearing. I swung it to my left, slicing apart two more, then slammed it over my head, smashing a fourth one to bits. It was swing, swing, stab. Swing, parry, stab. A dozen hellhounds turning to ash around me. I was starting to get the hang of it when the temperature spiked again. This time, I was ready for it.

My muscles turned to jelly and I stumbled on my feet, but my powers would work just fine. I held my hand behind me, resting it on the bookcase, and fired a blast of wind, launching both myself and Ludmila across the room. The bolt of light struck, blowing the whole bookcase and the hundreds of books on it apart.

" _Return the lance to me and your demise shall be painless!_ " a voice said, the same one I'd heard in my dream. " _Refuse, and you shall die a thousand deaths!_ " I resisted the urge to ask if he was making an Akuma reference from _Street Fighter 4_ with that line.

"Ah come on, slow down already!" I called back with false courage. "This is just the first date! Well, second if you count the—"

"Biko!" Ludmila yanked me out of the way as the spot I was standing in lit up like a candle. A bolt of light struck it, boring a hole straight through the building's foundation.

 _This is starting to get ridiculous_ , I thought to myself. It was bad enough that I was dealing with hellhounds, but now there was a magic stone whose attack range was _freaking everywhere_? It was only a matter of time before one of us tripped up and got vaporised.

"Biko, look at the scorch marks!"

"It's kind of hard not to notice them when they're big enough to be seen from Mars!"

"There's a pattern!"

"Huh?" It was hard to focus when a hellhound the size of a rhino broke through a wall and challenged me to a stare down (it won of course), but I tried anyway. There didn't really _look_ like there was a pattern. Until I looked up at least.

Above all of the scorched areas and craters was a broken lightbulb, or at least it was close to one.

"No, _please_ don't tell me…." I looked up, and sure enough, there was a dim copper light dangling over my head. I held my hands in front of me and pretty much Iron Manned my way out of there, flying from whirlwinds in my hands and feet, backwards and straight into a wall.

The air rushed out of my lungs as I slammed into it. Pain filled my whole torso, tingling up and down my spine as I slumped to the ground, my vision blurry. I must have used a little bit _too_ much kick, but it was totally worth it. A bolt of white and yellow light struck where I was standing just moments ago, the light above it exploding.

"It can only attack where there's light!" Ludmila yelled.

"So we shoot all the lights. What then?! Hellhounds will just start spawning everywhere!"

"You wanna fight the laser instead?"

"Okay, point taken."

I looked up at all of the lights around me. Taking them out would be child's play. Letting go of my lance for a second, I slowly raised both of my hands into the air. The furniture in the room all rose with them, hovering a few centimetres in the air. It was the coolest, I was like a freaking Jedi!

I flicked my wrists up. The furniture all flew straight for the ceiling, obliterating all of the lights, bathing the room in darkness. The only sources of light were Ludmila's poi, burning as she spun them around in a flaming tornado, and the eyes of the hellhounds, including the rhino sized one that charged straight for me.

I picked up my spear and launched it at the creature like a javelin, the weapon going straight through and out the other side. It didn't stop there either, as I could hear three more howls before they all exploded into glittering clumps of dust.

I stretched my hand in front of me, willing tornadoes to erupt on the floor and return my lance to me. Sadly, even though I could see my weapon clearly, I couldn't really see my hands, and the weapon nearly impaled me as it rammed through the wall right next to me, its blade next to my stomach. I was so glad I hadn't drunk anything recently because I probably would have peed a little as I pulled out the tool that nearly killed me.

I heard a cataclysmic roar, the whole building shaking down to its foundations in fear. The room lit up in a glorious blaze of light. I could see everything clearly again.

I could see Ludmila standing by the wall, fending off a small platoon of slobbering demon mutts. I could see Zodiac standing in the middle of the room, the table kicked to the side, and drawing some kind of pentagram. I could see Fleecy next to him, adding weird signs and symbols inside it. I hadn't noticed before, but all the walls were covered in them. They must have been going around drawing them, although I had no idea what for. Oh, and I saw the guy who was makingthe light.

Actually, I'm not even sure _what_ it was. It was vaguely humanoid, and made entirely out of blazing yellow and white plasma, sometimes leaping off of its body and setting whatever they touched aflame. It glowed like burning magnesium, and I couldn't look at it directly for more than a few seconds at a time.

It took slow, measured steps towards us, but it was like it couldn't control its body properly, like every step was a struggle.

" _You demigods infuriate me_ ," he said, his voice echoing everywhere with just barely bridled anger. " _I only wish to amass my power, and yet you_ dare _to challenge_ me _? You, who are little more than specks on the timeline, the refuse of creation, choose to oppose me, who is timeless?!_ " He took another step forward, then abruptly stopped. I'm not sure if beings made of pure energy can frown, but he was changing colours and looked pretty confused so maybe that counted.

"I think we're doing a pretty good job," Zodiac said. "What about you, Fleecy?"

"Excellent job if I do say so myself," she replied with a brilliant smile. The monster looked up, and I followed. Above him, drawn on the ceiling next to where the chandelier used to be, was a big chalk circle with funky cursive writing written into it.

"Enochian sigil. Zach taught it to me for sealing divine entities, like the Rain Bow. Turns out it works just fine on you too, Samael."

That got him mad. He roared, blazing streaks of fire shooting everywhere off him like he was a living firework.

"Guys, buy me time!" Zodiac barked. "I have to finish this ritual to summon the Rain Bow!"

"Dude, no, we've gotta run while we can!" I yelled back. "He's gonna tear down the whole building!"

"That's the problem! This is the only place that we can…." He was interrupted by a fireball streaking towards his face. Fleecy had him covered, literally, expanding into a thundercloud and zapping the projectile to pieces with a blue bolt of lightning. "The bow can only be summoned here! If this place blows up, then we lose the weapon forever!"

"Well that's good, right? The bad guys can't get it either!"

"They can't get it, _in the US_! But they can still summon it in other countries. We lose this building, and Samael wins!"

"Oh…. Oh that's bad."

"Help!" Fleecy enveloped Zodiac in a protective cloud while Ludmila and I rolled into the way, standing next to each other as we blocked the energy monster, Samael, from proceeding any more. He didn't seem to care, firing a beam of molten lava straight at us. Ludmila stepped in the way, holding her palms in front of her as the lava spread like a giant glowing umbrella.

"Ludmila!"

"It's alright…. I resist heat." It sure didn't look like it though. She was glowing red instead of white, and her arms were starting to turn black, and that was ignoring how her clothes were catching fire. I looked around for something, anything that could make a difference. I held my palm out, re-summoning the Lance of Longinus to me and started generating a constant breeze around the whole room.

If too much lava filled the room, it wouldn't even matter if it touched us. The heat alone would turn us to barbecue. I had to keep everyone (relatively) cool until then. I jumped to the side, away from Ludmila and the lava, and charged at Samael with a roar, my spear pointed in front of me, ready to skewer him.

He didn't care. Of _course_ he didn't care. This was a final boss! What the heck were we doing fighting the final boss already?!

He held his other hand towards me and let loose a second stream of lava. I tried covering myself in a funnel of wind. It made sense in my head, right? After all, it's just a liquid.

 _Wrong!_ Geography class kicked in a little late in my brain. Sure, it's liquid, but it's still _molten rock_. Holding up a whole torrent of the stuff was like bench pressing bricks. I could do it, but flecks of lava were flying everywhere, some even catching on the hem of my shirt, tearing straight through it and to the ground, leaving the flesh there with a lot more than a sunburn. I couldn't imagine myself surviving for much more than thirty seconds, even with my breeze.

 _No. No! I can't die just yet,_ I thought to myself. _If I die now, my winds will drop, and the others will be vaporised! I just have to get through this magma wall. Just distract him long enough to give them a chance! If I can just…._

"Mine is the drill…." I felt stupid. I looked stupid. I was always stupid. I wasn't a genius like my siblings, and I wasn't cool and collected like Zodiac. I didn't have Ludmila's courage. I was no hero. Heck, half the time I couldn't even talk to people without freaking out! I was just a scared kid who didn't know how to grow up. And now I was going to die. Well, if I really was just a dork, then I could at least let my dorkiness save everybody else. Heck, maybe it would be the only 'heroic' thing I would do in my life! "Mine is the drill… that will **pierce the heavens!** "

I guess invoking the power of _Gurren Laggan_ was enough to make something _really cool_ happen. My spear broke! Shattered in my hands, like it was made of glass! But instead of exploding into a billion pieces like my sword, it restructured itself almost instantly, warping around my arm, even as I was already swinging my fist at the lava in a storm coated punch. It warped and clicked and connected until covering my arm was a massive golden drill, the size of my chest, spinning like a black hole as it shredded through the magma.

Samael caught his breath as he stared at me in shock. I must have caught him off guard, because the torrent ebbed in intensity, just for a second. It was more than enough. I held my left arm behind me, propelling myself towards him.

"Giga, Drill…." Whoops. I spoke too late. My drill slammed straight into his body, shredding through his stomach and spitting flames and lightning everywhere. My one chance to scream out the name of a finishing attack, and I blew it.

Samael howled in pain as my whole body followed, forcing its way through him (ow, ow, and _ow_! Sprinting through fire, lightning, and _plasma_ was a stupid idea) and stumbling through the other side, rolling to lessen the damage. I looked back at Samael, a gaping hole through his body and one of his arms torn off… and how he instantly regenerated himself.

"Wh… what the hell?! D-don't take away my victory like that!" I shrieked. Samael twisted his now regrown arm backwards so it was facing me. _Nope!_ I was _not_ gonna try that again!

I dashed around it, flying out of the way as a torrent of high pressure lava destroyed half the building in one go. No, I'm _not_ exaggerating. Apparently, he was holding back, or else that magic circle was limiting his strength until I destroyed it with my last attack (oops) because the entire front desk, the door, and _half the building_ was gone!

Right then and there, I questioned my life choices.

"Biko! Get down!" Zodiac roared. I obliged, flying towards the ground and landing next to Zodiac. Ludmila had used the time I'd bought to retreat back to his side too. Fleecy had turned back to human form and was apparently catching her breath. Zodiac held up his bow and arrow—wait… _what?_

There was no sling shot in his hand. Instead, he was holding a bow made entirely of glamorous rainbow light, a little like Samael actually. The string was made of pure white light instead, and its quiver and arrows looked like they were made of some kind of never-melt ice. He nocked one in his bow, taking precise, measured aim as he pulled it back (that was trippy too, his arm, _just his arm_ , kept teleporting to pull the string back so it looked like he was having real life framerate problems), and fired.

I was _not_ expecting the tsunami that followed, nor was I expecting it to destroy the other half of the room either. Honestly, I'm not even sure why we were alive after that shot! The arrow flew like a rocket, slamming into Samael like a blast from a cannon, accompanied by an entire typhoon, complete with thunderclouds (now with real lightning!), rain, hail, and a twenty foot tall wave that swept up everything in its path, all while the storm blasted the rest of the building apart. Samael howled before the water drowned him out, the wave rolling away and through the city streets, sweeping up cars, street lights, and the trashed aeroplane as it went on its way, causing untold destruction.

The collateral would be staggering.

"Now's our chance! Zodiac, let's run! Zodiac?" There was nothing left where he was standing. Instead, the 'recoil' from his bow had launched him backwards and into the next building, across the remainder of what was once Independence Hall, across the street, and through a glass window. A few seconds later he had teleported back, still clutching his bow, but now lying in a bloody puddle and breathing heavily, his eyes wide as he looked up at the now raining sky.

"My luck this week…. It's just… sucked," he wheezed.

"Guys, we _cannot stay here_ ," Ludmila said.

"I concur. Zodiac!"

"Right…. Grab onto something…." We did as he said. He shut his eyes, and the world around us flashed. And then again…. And again…. And yet again…. …. ….

Until we were away from the rain and well out of the area, even seeing police cars and ambulances streaking past us, sirens screaming and tires screeching as they headed for the disaster zone. A few people who were out late stared at us, but none stopped or asked questions. That would change real quick if they saw Zodiac bleeding out on the floor.

"Hey, dude, hang in there!" I yelled. He wasn't breathing.

My blood turned as cold as ice.

Fleecy crouched down next to him and placed her hands on his chest, pushing down on it rapidly. It took me a moment to realise she was trying to perform CPR. By now, a small crowd had gathered to see what was happening. I wasn't sure if I wanted to cry for help or punch someone for just staring, but then a woman in a trench coat rushed towards us to help. Thankfully, she didn't assault us with the storm of questions people usually asked. Instead, she called an ambulance first thing and explained the situation as rapidly as she could.

"That's twice he's been critically injured," Ludmila said bitterly. By now, Fleecy had pinched his nose and was blowing into his mouth just trying to get his breath back. "Twice we should have been able to help, and both times we failed…."

Zodiac gasped back to life, pushing Fleecy away as he began to cough up a storm, choking up globs of blood.

"Damn straight," he croaked, his voice raspy. "Next time, no noobs allowed…." He then promptly proceeded to shut his eyes, and lay still, blood pooling all around him as we stared dumbly at his body.

The rain began to pour.


	20. CAST, IN THE NAME OF THY 'FRO

**Important AN: I do not know when I will update next week. It's actually why I updated this almost two days earlier. The last two or three days I have been super busy and caught up with all sorts of family things which have _seriously_ slowed down my update schedule, and my comfy little cushion of chapters for this have run out. That would be fine, cause it ran out when I expected, almost at the end of Part II. I can write a chapter a week for two or three weeks if I have. But the whole of next week I might be stuck essentially in the middle of nowhere, with next to no internet access, and limited power. It's supposed to be a relaxing trip, but a week with nearly no writing... Apollo have mercy on my soul... So, now when I need that cushion of spare chapters the most, I have run out of spare chapters... Marvelous...**

 **So, knowing that, I _really_ doubt I'll be able to finish a proper, quality chapter in time and have it polished and ready to upload. So next week Saturday? Probably not happening. I can't even say Sunday or Monday either. I'll probably be delayed by a week, give or take a few days. For that, I am well and truly sorry. I hate not being able to write or update because writing keeps me sane, and knowing that you guys are reading and liking my work, reading and replying to your reviews, getting to know all these others cool writers here, it really does make my days, like, you have no idea. That, and I'm _so close_ to the end of Part II, which means I'll have to start Part III soon and I'm really excited about that! So, bear with me until then, and wish me good luck! Oh, and before I forget!**

 **WiseGirlGeek: I guess I'll keep trying until eventually it starts working. The site can be pretty buggy sometimes... Ah, you're catching onto all of them! I sprinkle hundreds of them everywhere! Of course, not every chapter is filled with them, but I plant them every now and then. Some are _really_ obscure (Nico makes two Undertale references, one of which is in here) and others are glaringly obvious if you've heard of where they come from (The Mulan and Gurren Laggan references were practically decorated).**

 **Well, I've stalled long enough. Just hoping I could let you guys know in case you're confused if/when there's no chapter update. I'll still try update, don't get me wrong, but I'm not gonna sacrifice quality for it so yeah. Love you guys too much for that!**

 **CHAPTER 20: CAST, IN THE NAME OF THY 'FRO (Rachel Elizabeth Dare's thoughts)**

Writer's block sucks. Everyone who just says 'keep trying' or 'you'll get over it' can take their input with them down to Tartarus.

Sorry. I'm not normally this angry. It's just that, when the fate of all your friends—and potentially the whole world—depends on how creative you're feeling, it can get a little bit stressful.

Ever since I told the current Great Prophecy (ugh, how unoriginal) I hadn't been able to hear the oracle's voice in my head. I knew something was wrong at the time, but I ignored it. Contrary to popular belief, I'm normally _not_ giving prophecies a lot, so this wasn't unusual. But I couldn't even _feel_ the oracle anymore. Suddenly, it felt like nothing inspired me anymore. Nothing looked magical or eye catching. My art and paints didn't interest me anymore. Even my dreams were unusually bland, if not outright absent. The most exciting dream I'd had in weeks was about eating soggy cornflakes. Like, seriously?

The oracle had gone silent. Believe me, I could tell, because this has _happened_ before. During the _Trials of Apollo_. I didn't want anybody to know, but I was terrified. Terrified I would lose my power, what made me special.

And now, it was happening again. But this time, I wasn't going to wallow in my despair. I was going to _force_ the prophecy out of me, through the power of _art_!

I'd replaced my speakers with a retro jukebox to give the sound of the music a nostalgic, almost rustic tone, and I was playing _I Wish I Was a Punkrocker_ on loop. Maybe I was hoping that the sound would somehow seep into the blank page on the desk in front of me, but that was _definitely_ not the case. It was probably three in the morning, but I was _not_ going to sleep until I produced something at least _halfway_ decent on my page. I didn't care what it was, even fan art! All I had to show for my work was a hideously disproportionate pony.

In a rage, I crumpled the paper up and threw it behind my back, not even caring about the sea of trashed pages, notes, and destroyed canvases that had replaced my little hideaway's floor. I stared at the blank page that was now in front of me and clutched my pen, trying to ignore the spots that were swimming in front of my eyes.

My head felt like it had been filled with helium, and every breath felt laboured. I was _not_ going to pass out, no matter how exhausted my body felt. Even if it felt like my brain had been dunked in orange juice (why orange juice? Was I _that_ sleepy?) I was _not_ going to….

* * *

Drift off to sleep. I snapped myself awake with a start, letting out a surprised yelp as I fell off of my chair and onto the ground.

I stood up and looked around. I was definitely in the same room as before, in the exact same position. It was still dark outside. Good. I hadn't slept for _too_ long.

I rose to my feet and turned back to my seat, and froze.

Sitting on my stool with her head resting on a blank page was a woman with frizzy red hair, ripped jeans, and an apron with splotches of paint on it. She looked suspiciously like me. No, she _was_ me!

I approached her cautiously, wondering if I was looking at some kind of doppelganger or a shape shifter. I poked her nervously. My finger went right through her, like a ghost. I screamed, yanking my hand back.

"How does it feel to be dead?" a woman asked. I turned around with a start, reaching for a paint pot (Wow Rachel, first a hairbrush and now a paint pot? Your choice of weapons is outstanding), but found my hand went straight through that too, and through the whole desk.

Standing in the middle of the room was a woman with the most glorious hair I'd ever seen, puffed up in an enormous afro that would have stood out even in the eighties. For whatever reason, she seemed to have gone with that kind of seventies-eighties theme, with large flare pants and a top with golden buttons. I couldn't quite place what colour everything was, so I decided that they were rainbow coloured.

Her eyes were as golden as Kronos's, and I wasn't sure how much I wanted to trust her after I thought about that. A smile like a Cheshire cat spread on her face as she saw my expression change from confusion to horror as I pondered her question.

"Oh relax! I'm only teasing! You're not actually dead! Well, as long as you don't do anything stupid…."

"Wha… who are you?" I asked. "What's happening?" She pulled up a chair that I'd discarded earlier and sat down in it, leaning backwards. How she managed that with one of its legs broken was beyond me.

"Well, as I'm sure you can tell, I'm a goddess. You're currently having an Out of Body experience. That wasn't meant to happen. Must have been interference from that spirit sleeping inside you… my bad."

"Umm… okay? Can you fix this?"

"Of course! With a click of my fingers!" She snapped her fingers, and a hurricane swept in through the room. Everything rose into the air: all the upturned furniture, the shattered easels, the broken portraits and spilt paint pots (paint no longer included), all of it, and in two seconds flat, was back where they were supposed to be and the right side up. "I can't do much for the destruction, but I think it adds a nice touch…. Oh, you meant fix _this_ situation with us talking here! Yeah, not happening until I'm done."

Normally, I would have liked such a colourful individual if she hadn't kidnapped me frommy sleep and I wasn't so cranky already.

"You're a goddess? That's impossible, I can't even _guess_ who you are."

"Of course you can't. You westerners tend to be fond of ignoring everything that you didn't produce. Looking at the children in this country, I think it's time to ignore everything you _do_ produce as well…."

"I'm not really sure how to take that comment…."

"Don't worry, I'm not here to give you parenting advice. I'm here to tell you something _far_ more important to do with your little gift of prophecy and why it's not working." I didn't know what this goddess's name was or what she wanted with me, but something told me that I _needed_ to hear what she had to say. Still….

"What happens if I don't wanna listen?" I asked.

"That's fine too. Just start enjoying eternity as a spirit. I hear it's pretty boring until you go vengeful. _That's_ when the fun starts!"

Eternity sounded like a long time. With a sigh, I sat down on the couch now that it had been placed the right way up again, and just focussed on listening.

"Someone is trying to tamper with your visions."

"I knew it! But how? Are they just… blocking the signal?"

"Not quite…. They're kind of… twisting the prophecies. Honestly, it's pretty annoying to deal with. The only person I know who can fix it lives across the ocean and is _really_ difficult to deal with."

"Then, assuming you're telling the truth, who's doing it?"

"That… I cannot say." I glared at her, but she just smirked back at me. "I'm serious! You know how it is with names. Just saying them can do a lot of bad stuff."

"Then give them a moniker or something, like 'you-know-who'."

"Can't do that. I'll have this person's thoughts on my mind and that's too risky. Over on this side, I'm not strong enough to mask our thoughts and presence. Now stop talking about it! You'll blow our cover!" My gut was telling me to listen, but my brain had other ideas. I didn't even know which goddess this was, or if she even _was_ a goddess! She didn't act like the Greek gods at all.

"But if somebody is changing my prophecies, then shouldn't I still be getting them, just different?"

"You would be. And we would probably all be dead by now if that was the case. So I blocked them off completely."

"You did _what_?"

"I sealed your brain. Closed it tight like a zip." She added the whole zipping motion like she was sealing her lips, popping the 'p' sound as she did it. I swore to the gods that I was going to pop her out of existence if she made that noise again.

"Then all of this is your fault!" I roared. "You're the reason I can't draw or write anything! Because of you, all this time… I thought something was wrong with me!"

"Between crushing your spirit and letting the world burn, the choice was pretty easy. Sorry about that though." I wanted to scream. And here I thought that this was _my_ problem, but it was just the goddess of afros messing around with my head! "I understand why you're so angry about it though. And honestly, this isn't an ideal situation for me either. There's a lot of important information that you need to get your hands on, and you can't do that with me embargoing your prophecies. And obviously if I unblock them, then it lets in all of the 'false' prophecies too. So, I'll give you a helping hand. I'll temporarily unblock your prophecy, just for one vision and one vision alone."

"And what's the catch?"

"Simple. Don't let…." Her voice disappeared, like it had been snatched by the wind. My vision started getting blurry, and it looked like all the murals and artwork were bleeding off of the walls. The goddess frowned as she saw me staggering to the ground as I desperately tried to stay upright. I felt nauseous. It was like somebody was liquefying all of my insides, brain included. "Looks like… found out… … piece of proph-… too late…." The goddess held up her hand, a brilliant golden light glowing inside of her palm. A series of images flashed before my eyes, getting starker and more twisted with each passing moment.

The images all rushed into my eyes like they had been blocked by a dam, waiting for somebody to knock it all down and let them out. I screamed as my mind was flattened beneath it all, the visions trying to fill up every crevice in my mind that they could fit in, soaking my brain like a sponge. Just when I thought I couldn't take it anymore, and the screams were too much, I woke up, falling out of my seat _again_. This time, there was somebody other than myself screaming.

I clambered to my feet, barely noticing that the impromptu repairs to my room were still in effect, and rushed out of the cave entrance.

It was a beautiful late afternoon, filled with untold death and destruction. Oh, and _really_ bright lights, bright as the sun and spewing lava.

The amphitheatre was a warzone, with campers fleeing from the centre. I couldn't really see it clearly, but there was a giant ball of light in the middle of it all—where the campfire should have been—with arcs of lightning and rivers of plasma or something erupting from it.

"Oh no," I mumbled as I staggered down the steps, already fully awake after just getting up. "Oh no oh no oh no…."

I probably should have been moving _away_ from the centre of the destruction. Maybe I could have hidden under the bed if I felt especially cowardly. But the people down there were my friends, and I was _not_ about to leave them to get fried.

I made it to the edge of the amphitheatre, and now I was a bit closer (and everything was a _lot_ brighter), I could make it out a lot clearly.

First, it wasn't a single light, but _three_ , all coming from these human silhouette things that looked like they were made of pure energy. They were moving pretty slowly, with unnatural, jerking movements, and they left behind puddles of molten rock wherever they went. Touching them would melt the flesh right off my bones.

A circle of campers had assembled around the edges of the amphitheatre, equipped with bows and javelins, raining down arrows and spears at the three figures for all the good they would do. One of them looked particularly annoyed as an arrow dug into its neck, slowly turning to face them. It pointed at them, and a second later, a massive ball of fire was heading their way. They screamed as it blew up, sending them scattering every direction it could. Another light monster followed suit, but with a whole stream of fire like a flamethrower instead of one exploding ball.

Amidst all of the heat and the light, I wasn't expecting to see somebody step out of a shadow, particularly not Nico di Angelo.

"Nico? What are you doing here?" I asked.

"Trying to make sure you guys don't get killed," he replied. "Light against dark, huh? Let's see who's stronger." Nico placed a hand on the ground, and a small army of the undead rose in response, all dressed in Spartan armour. All of the ones carrying spears chucked them first before drawing their swords and getting up close and personal. For a second, it looked like they were doing well too, hacking and slashing at them, but they were quickly mowed down with giant paws made up of lava, slapping them aside and burning them to a crisp. Nico didn't care, his hand never once leaving the ground as he summoned more and more of them.

"Nico, this isn't working," I said.

"And charging in like a moron is better? I'm trying to figure them out." The second wave got mowed down pretty quick, but not before ten of them dogpiled one of the monsters, burying it beneath their weight. Nico frowned as they struggled to keep the monster under control. "That's weird… they should have been destroyed by now…."

His thoughts were interrupted when two more campers arrived.

"Okay, who're the bad guys here?" the one with the beanie—Zach—asked, drawing a black revolver pistol from his pocket.

"Isn't it obvious?" the girl replied. "Those lights… they come from Samael! I'm sure of it!"

"And they're pretty much invincible," Nico added. "I've got a plan though. You guys, hold off two of them. I'll do my best with the one being body slammed."

"I'll take care of the wounded," I said, already scrambling to get everyone who was incapacitated out of there. As I helped campers up or dragged bodies away, I caught snippets of the fighting. The other newcomer—Riley—was slashing her way through two of them while Zach was aiming, trying to get in a good shot with his pistol. Nico was standing in front of the zombie pile.

"You're made of light, but you're weak when you're in the dark," Nico said, holding his hand in front of them. A ball of darkness absorbed the skeletons and the monster, engulfing them in the shadows. "Once you figure that out, you become nothing more than a glorified Christmas light." He clenched his fist, the ball collapsing within itself before it disappeared, no trace of everything that was inside it, even leaving a nice crater in the ground.

He turned to face the other two, but was greeted by the sound of a gunshot. It sounded more like a thunderbolt than a bullet, and there was a flash of red lightning and fire as it pierced the monster's skull.

Zach was holding his pistol up to the forehead of one of the monsters as it staggered backwards, unable to understand what had just happened. It collapsed to its knees, the light draining from its body until it looked like it was made of charcoal. It looked up at the sky and howled, a massive inferno swallowing it whole before fading away in the wind, leaving behind nothing but ash.

The last monster stared with an expression that screamed _I'm not paid enough for this_.

Zach didn't even hesitate, ending it in the same way. A flash of lightning and a towering inferno later, and there was nothing but ash, floating away in the breeze. It was almost as if nothing ever happened, so we were all just standing there panting and looking stupid.

And _that's_ when Chiron showed up. Seriously, his timing couldn't have been any worse if he travelled by wheelchair. I was a little alarmed to see that his shirt was spattered with blood though, and his bow was already in his hands. Wherever he was, something had happened to him too.

"You… all of you… assess the damage and make sure nobody is hurt. Once you're done, report back to me in the Big House." Nico and I looked at each other. Something was _definitely_ wrong. Chiron normally looked a lot more composed than this, even after a fight. He fought Kronos and finished up looking like he'd gone for a jog. Whatever had worked him up, it couldn't be good….

* * *

"Samael is rising."

"Oh really? I thought those light puppets were a _training exercise_!"

"The sarcasm's a little thick, but I've gotta agree with Riley. Shouldn't you have seen this coming?"

"I did. That's why Biko and the others are on that quest right now."

We'd gotten ourselves comfy in the Big House, chewing on biscuits and tea like we were just having a picnic. Mr. D was nowhere to be seen, and Nico looked more interested in Seymour the talking leopard head.

It was a miracle that nobody was dead actually, although we were cutting it close. A lot of campers had nasty burns and all sorts of other injuries. The infirmary was almost full. Riley looked more ticked off than anything. Her gauntlets still hadn't disappeared, and she was tapping her foot impatiently. Even as we were talking, Zach was cradling his pistol, and honestly, I was just hoping that he remembered to put the safety on.

"Wait, Biko's on that quest _because_ you knew this would happen?" Riley asked. "I thought that it was Athena's decision to send him out?"

"It was. And I'm still not sure that I agree with it. But she recognised the danger too. Remember, she said that for Ludmila, being outside camp would be 'safe' compared to in here. There is something very odd about those two, a different kind of power. Having them here would be worse than having a child of the Big Three in camp. Those monsters might have been able to sneak in earlier."

"Yeah, how _did_ they do that?" I asked. "We're protected by some really heavy barriers. No monsters or mortals should be able to enter without our permission."

"I should know," Zach said. "I got locked out of camp the other day when I tried to collect this puppy. Turns out I only got in the first time because Riley said 'make yourself comfy'. I was stuck there for _hours_." I wanted to ask about Zach's gun too. It insta-killed two of those guys with ease. I'd never seen anything like it inside or outside of camp. But that would have to wait. Camp being in imminent danger seemed more worrying.

"So basically, Athena was scared that these monsters—Samael's goons I guess—were gonna find a way into camp if the two rookies stayed here, so she sent them out to buy us more time…. So, they're like a lure or a decoy?"

"There was very little I could do to stop her," Chiron began, "but I figured they would still be safer then here. But upon realising this, I began to doubt that decision."

"It makes sense," Nico said. "Sacrifice the few to protect the many. Still sounds pretty rotten though, but that's the way it goes for us… so, how did those things get in?"

"I wish I knew. Not many creatures can brute force their way through. Riley, you have first-hand experience with Samael. Those things… they were definitely from him?"

"Yup. But they were much weaker than the original. They didn't even seem sentient. But what bothers me is that they had an actual body. Samael was just… _energy_. He was trapped in a rock. They were wandering around, and there were three of them. Just getting into camp must have drained their power. If they were at full strength, then we wouldn't have been able to fight _one_ , and that _still_ wouldn't hold a candle to the real deal. Err, no pun intended."

"Whatever those things were, one thing is clear: Samael is getting stronger. He's almost at full power even as we speak. That was the other reason that Biko is on his quest. He thinks it's just to prove himself to his mother, but there's much more to it than that…."

"While you guys have been hanging around here, my team has been gathering intel," Nico continued, picking up from Chiron. "We can't pinpoint where Samael is yet, but we know one thing: every time a particularly powerful magical item goes missing, Samael gets stronger a few days later. This has been going on for a long time, and now it's finally having affects. Samael is waking, and if he rouses himself, we're all in for a bad time."

"So we just have to beat up Samael _before_ he hits full power," I said. "No problem!"

"Big problem. None of us know where he is. Not even the Olympians."

"Wait, really?" Zach asked. "But, Hades is the one who _saved_ us from him. Shouldn't he have a good idea of where he went?"

"If he did, don't you think we would have destroyed Samael already? He chased him down for a few hours before he-"

"Stop right there!" I yelled, attracting everybody's stares. "He _chased_ him?"

"Yes. What's wrong?" Well, Samael was a _rock_ for a start. I couldn't get the image of him digging his way over the ground like a diglett, or Bugs Bunny out of my head, but this was serious talk so I let them continue. "Anyway… he chased him before Samael pretty much vanished. As far as we can tell, he's _somewhere_ in this country, but that's about it." Everyone stayed silent for a little bit while I pondered over the images the goddess had shown me in my dream.

"I _think_ I know where he is…." I told them about my dream and how I saw the location in my head.

"Come on, that's just _too_ melodramatic!" Riley yelled.

"You'd be surprised how much monsters love melodrama," Zach replied. "Anyway, it's our onlylead. It's better than sitting around here, waiting for the apocalypse."

"Great! Now there's another problem: how do we _beat_ him?" I asked. I hated to be so negative but I _really_ wasn't looking forward to burying any more bodies, and charging in without a plan was the quickest route to that.

"Nico, that was your responsibility," Chiron said, looking him in the eyes.

"Well, we came up with a few ideas…. Samael is sealed in a stone tablet, right? And at the end of the day, he's a spirit. After finding out that Samael is weak to darkness from today's fight, I think I can do it, as long as I work together with Hazel…." He explained his plan to us, and the more I listened, the more I started to believe that it might just work. And yet, I couldn't shake the feeling that something was going to go wrong, and the images the afro goddess showed me weren't helping….

I didn't need to be an oracle to tell that though. Things _always_ went wrong. It would depend on us to fix them.

"This is our best shot, but I'm not looking forward to it," Nico said. "We just barely made it through the last prophecy. I don't want to put Hazel in danger again…."

"Nico, she's a member of the legion," Chiron said. "Not only that, but she's one of The Seven. She can handle anything that gets thrown her way."

The Seven…. The seven strongest demigods of their generation. They had _proven_ they could do the impossible. If anybody could pull this off, it would be one of them. Maybe.

"I cannot honestly say that I'm not concerned," he continued, "but I believe that you'll be able to pull through. However, plans never run smoothly, and it's always wise to have a backup. If that fails, what then?"

"I think I have the answer to that," Zach said. He cleared his throat and tried his best to suppress a smile. "Back in eighteen thirty-five, when Halley's Comet was overhead, the same night those men died at the Alamo, they say Samuel Colt made a gun… a special gun. He made it for a hunter—a man like me, only on horseback. The story goes he made thirteen bullets, and the gun was used a half dozen times before he disappeared, the gun along with him. Somehow, an old acquaintance of mine got a hold of it…." He placed his gun on the table for all to see.

It was an ebony black revolver with a stupidly long, hexagonal barrel. It had a wooden grip with a pentagram carved into it, and it looked worn and weathered down from repeated use. There were a few decorative floral designs around the start of the barrel, but what got my attention was the weird inscription on it: _non timebo mala_ , whatever that meant. "They say—they say this gun can kill anything."

" _Anything_?" Riley asked.

"Anything, no exceptions. I'm pretty lucky. The only guy left alive who knows how to make its bullets crafted a bunch for me, so I've got more than six shots. Eleven to be precise, now that I've used up two. Since Samael is sentient and magical, he counts as a creature. If all else fails, I'll just shoot the tablet and be done with it."

Nico was eyeing the gun suspiciously, and I couldn't blame him. Such a dangerous artefact probably wouldn't even be _allowed_ in the hands of an ordinary demigod, let alone one with a remarkable talent for shooting them, but this was an extreme situation. Zach was the most experienced marksman here. If anybody could pull off the shot, it would be him.

"And if _that_ plan fails?" Chiron asked again.

"We run away obviously. I'm not interested in dying just yet." Riley snorted.

"Run away? Really Zach? That's your go-to choice?"

"Well it's better than dying! I can't exactly protect anybody as a corpse."

"You're right. If things get messy, we get out of there alive. _All_ of us. But I'm not gonna run with my tail between my legs just because he's scared me off. If running away puts _any_ of you in danger, then I'll never be able to forgive myself. Besides, I've still got a score to settle with that guy." She pounded her fist into her open palm and, I kid you not, we could _feel_ the wind from the blow. It even blew a few papers off the table.

Zach seemed to be the only one who actually noticed, because he was staring wide eyed at her the whole time, even as everybody was already taking it in.

"So, when do we restart our quest?" Zach asked, still looking a little awestruck.

"Did you even have to ask? You already know the answer." A smile spread on his face, still filled with complete bafflement.

"Tomorrow morning, right?" Chiron nodded his head, and Riley just responded by getting up already, stretching out her shoulders.

"We can't waste any more time than we need to," Chiron said. "Use today wisely to prepare and inform Reika of everything that's passed."

"I'll communicate with Hazel and the others," Nico said, getting up. It was strange to see the difference in the boy. I never really got to know him that well, but he used to be such a loner, always by himself whenever possible. He was still pretty isolated, but he didn't seem so sad anymore. Heck, he was even _working_ with people.

Everybody was set. We all knew what we were meant to do. I wanted to go with them too, to help any way that I could. But camp needed its oracle. Leaving now would just be selfish (not to mention stupidly dangerous).

"Guys, make sure to take care of yourselves," I said. "If you ever need anything, I'm here for you."

"No problem Dare, we know!" Riley said. "I'll make sure to get a few good hits in for you! Hey, maybe I'll graffiti his tablet a bit too? Add some colour to his life!" I giggled. Riley was so strange. She could jump from mind bogglingly unapproachable to the easiest person to be with in a split second. Most people didn't see that other side of her a lot, but it made sense why Ash was always with her.

That, and why Zach was _still_ looking at her like some kind of puppy. I rolled my eyes as I left the room first. With a pained sigh, I remembered that I _still_ hadn't finished the drawing I left up in my room….

* * *

. . .

* * *

 **Third Person POV**

"Was what you said true?" Zach asked. Riley looked at him in confusion. They'd been the last to leave, and since Chiron had gone out so he could assess the situation, they were the only people left, just standing on the Big House porch.

"Is what true?" Riley asked.

"That thing about wanting to settle the score with Samael." Zach knew he probably shouldn't question someone's motives for fighting. After all, hunters _became_ hunters usually by questing for revenge. If she wanted to get payback, that was fine, but he just wanted to make sure she wouldn't kill herself doing it. Riley thought about it for a second before answering.

"Well yeah, it infuriates me that he won without lifting a finger."

"He didn't _have_ any fingers."

"You know what I meant! But the thing I said about wanting to protect you guys? That was more real than anything else. When we fought Samael that first time, I realised that I couldn't do _anything_ and you guys were going to…. I thought… I thought I was gonna lose you all. I just wanted to be able to protect you, but I couldn't do it. Not with the power I had then at least. And I've just been freaking out thinking, 'if that happened again and you all died, and it was all my fault what would I do?'"

"You'd probably hit the gym and go back for round three." Riley laughed, shaking her head. There was silence for a moment as Zach breathed in the air. He could still smell traces of fire and sulphur from the battleground, but otherwise the air smelled like strawberries.

"You're the only person who gives me a chance these days," Riley said, tearing him from his reverie before he could get lost in it. "Well, you and Ash at least. I can't figure out how that makes me feel…." It took him a few seconds to think of something to say.

"You _really_ don't know how cool you are sometimes, do you?"

"Oh really? The playground bully is also the cool kid? What is this, high school musical?"

"No, I'm serious! Actually, I feel terrible now! Here I thought you just wanted to pick a fight with Samael, but you were trying to _protect_ us the whole time, no matter what we think of you! We've been doing gods know what, but you've been working and fighting the whole time just so you could look out for us. Honestly, I'm jealous of your resolve!"

"Protecting people is normal. It's what you're meant to do when somebody's in a jam."

"Yeah, well, some people don't really appreciate it that much…." Zach leaned on the wooden railing, and stared off into the distance. When it was quiet, he could still remember her face, and her words as he stood there, covered from head to toe in blood. Nobody was thanking him then….

"Well, I don't care _who_ appreciates it," Riley said, leaning on the spot just next to him. "If nobody else cares, then I'll protect you, no matter what. You're… you're too weird for me to let you go that easily." Zach's breath caught in his throat, and he didn't understand why. He looked at her, but she wasn't even looking at him. She was now staring at a random hill in the distance.

She shivered, squeezing her eyes shut.

"Cold?"

"No. Just…. I guess those Samael doubles freaked me out more than I want to admit."

"Oh."

"And maybe I'm a _little_ cold."

"Oh…." After ten seconds of calculated thought, Zach took of his jacket, expertly remade from the remnants of his old trench coat, and draped it around Riley's shoulders. He hesitated for a second, then placed his arm over shoulders, rubbing her arm reassuringly. He was sure that she would have punched him through the roof by now, but she must not have been lying about being spooked by the monsters because she didn't move. They stayed like that for a while in silence, just staring up at the sky as the first stars started to paint themselves into it.

And all the while, Reika had been watching from the strawberry fields, hidden from view when she realised they were busy, clutching a packet of marshmallows and a DVD….

 **Lower your pitchforks, please! I know, after leaving you with that devastating cliffhanger from last week, I can't just jump back to the others! Last we left Zodiac, he was bleeding out in the middle of the street! Well, as you can see, I kind of needed to get this chapter out _somewhere_ before I reached the end of Part II, and next chapter (I think) we'll be going back to the others anyway, and maybe we'll see if they've all made it... or have been killed by a random meteor. Who knows? So, a moment of gratitude...**

 **Thank you so very much to RockRoy for the follow and _numerous_ reviews! It's not every day I get a whole chunk of reviews like that! Also, if you haven't checked it out yet, he's got a bunch of fanfic for various things, including a Percy Jackson story called 'Aces High', and I found it pretty fun! I would have reviewed it already but I've barely had the time to even _read_ it lately, as I've already said... But I do recommend it! Plus, it updates every Saturday, so you can normally find it at the same time as my fic... give or take a few time zones of course! So, see you... whenever I guess!**


End file.
